Me, I am Admiral Swatzi. My orders are to make sure everything runs smoothly and undetected. Ambria is in the Yappyh Sector, a far sector in the outer-rim. In fact, we far enough out, we don't have to really worry about the New Republic. Our main objective for the time being is to build up our Military Power. I oversee everything that happens here, what ships are built, what troops are trained. Eventually, we hope to restore order to the Galaxy, or at least that's what I hope....

edit: Ambria is part of the Empire, with a Moff and such....

edit: There are cities on the surface, including one over top of the underground city that the Imperials do their thing in.

They ran up to a group of boys and girls around Aijdin and Jaime's age----

His eyes opened. He was sweating all over. "A Dream?", he said out loud. "What the hell was that?"
---------------------------------------
Post more later, lost my train of thought....

Shakin up by the dream he had had the day before, Admiral Actar sat in his private quarters for hours meditating, trying to understand what it meant. But, of course, he couldn't find it. Who was Aijdin? Why did it take place back at the Jedi Praxeum? Oh well, more important things were happening, they had arived at Ambria.

--- The Bridge

"General, inform the surface that we'll be landing. And, have the prisoner put on my shuttle, in a force cage."

"Yes, Admiral." and he went right to it.

Sheesh, what is the story with this guy? First he acts like he's out to help me, then he snags me and pitches me into a Force Cage... then he hauls me off in a shuttle to Kaandon-knows-where, and now he lets down the shielding to the Cage?

I pursed my lips in a grim line, all the while screaming inwardly at myself to do something, anything--I don't know what. Attack him maybe, try to get control of this shuttle, take off, go somewhere...
anywhere....

I sighed a little louder, realizing that after what I had pulled with him before there was sure as there's Treasure on Roon no way he was gonna let me get the drop on him again. He didn't look the stupid type.

So Galen, ol girl... whatcha gonna do now?

I did the only thing I could do. I kept looking him straight in the eye, and finally, winding up my courage, blurted out:

I stared out the viewport at the rapidly approaching planet. It looked like a beautiful red marble, streaked with sooty oranges and dusty mauves. However, though the sight it presented went a long way toward soothing my eye, it came nowhere near touching my mind. Or my heart.

It took every bit of willpower I possessed not to actually shake. As it was, I couldn't keep the tremor out of my voice when at last I found my tongue to speak.

"Rescued me?" I blurted, whirling from the viewport to face this strangely quiet man. "Rescued me?!"

All of a sudden I couldn't see for the red swimming before my eyes. All the pain and heartache of voluntarily leaving Sorben, all the terror in response to my evil sister, all the trepidation and uncertainty regarding my future... and that of my baby's; all this that I had repressed suddenly combined into one huge overwhelming rush until I couldn't feel anything but the mindless anger of a rancor who had gone too long without his lunch. In blind rage, tears now swimming in my eyes, I took a step toward this man, then another.

Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself directly before him, beating on his broad chest with both fists. All the words I tried to speak, to explain, to demand, to beg and plead...

...all were lost before the one overpowering thought that kept my fists hammering away at him, over and over and over.

"Dad, oh... Dad! Why did this happen? Why did she kill you? Why couldn't I stop her!

"Why--?"

My hands found no answer, only the mute satisfaction of pummelling against his unyielding chest, over and over and over....

Little did he know the Moff would join him and bring him here to this Hellhole to get a fleet.

The Moff will probably be denied any ships after the whole assasination attempt, Terrin thought grumpily.

Thanks to Shayla my whole career is falling apart. This was supposed to be a one-time deal, and I was supposed to be paid very handsomely for it. Instead I'm stuck her with a self-righteous Moff under the terrain of a desert...just...waiting.

Soon enough the truth would come out, and soon enough the Moff would have to admit that they would either have to take his small fleet of ships and Terrin's or that they would just have to give in.

And Shayla would win.

With a startled little jerk of awareness, I realized the large object blocking my view was the body of the black-garbed man who had taken me. I started even more noticeably when I realized what I had been doing to him... what I was still doing to him....

I gulped, and quickly dropped my hands to my sides. There, my fingers clenched into fists, grasping the material of my sleeping garb-- oh Great Khaandon's Ghost, was I still in the nightwear I had on when I had been snatched from my bed by my sister, seemingly aeons ago?! --and twisting it with the effort of stilling my outburst.

Through it all, the man spoke no word. He didn't even lift so much as a finger to stop me. He merely stood there like some sort of damn rock, letting me pummel away at him, flooding him with tears and pain and terror. Even now that I was slowly gaining some semblance of control over myself, he still remained silent. I thought I caught the glint of some kind of sad smile on his face, however.

That amazing discovery encouraged me to attempt filling the looming silence we were both suddenly falling into. I sniffed, swiping furtively at my face with one fist.

"I- I, um..." I faltered, not quite knowing what to say. But suddenly I realized I felt pounds lighter. It was as if I had been carrying some kind of burden around, all unbeknownst to me, and somehow that burden had been completely removed from my shoulders.

I stared into his strange greeny-brown eyes. "Th-thank you," I whispered. Then, realizing how inconguous that statement sounded at the time, I fell silent.

I wish I knew what was going on in his head....

Part of the reason he chose this planet to establish the secret headquarter's was it's beautiful orangish-pink atmosphere. In the distance they could see the city of Bim Renna. The Secret Imperial Construction yards were under the city, along with the training facilities.

He knew Graysith was following them, but he honestly had no idea what would happen when she decided to come for Galen. He would try for an alliance with her, which would in turn make the Empire even stronger, but the Sith are pure evil, and she may have other plans.

They arrived in what looked like a mini Coruscant. The building weren't as tall, and it was just a city, not the whole planet, but it had the floating landing platforms and everything. They landed on a landing platform and were greeted by Admiral Swatzi, and other officials.

Admiral Actar walked off the ship, followed by Galen close behind, and greeted everyone with the usual greeting's. No one asked who the woman behind him was, no one except Admiral Swatzi. He told him he would explain it later, and they walked inside.

Inside the building it was what you would expect of a secret operation. This building was somewhat more open about it, but it would be common in any system run by the empire, which this one was, so they didn't worry much. As they were walking to a debreifing room, Actar stopped to introduce Galen to Admiral Swatzi, who, in turn, introduced himself, and asked, "What's your story?" but before she could answer Actar had his hand on Swatzi's shoulder turning him forward telling him he'll find out later. Before they entered the briefing room, Actar turned to Galen and said, "Incase you were wondering, this is the Empire", he then turned and walked into the room.

The briefing went as usually. He was told how many of what was built and trained. Also told what had happened in the New Repulic Senate while he was away, nothing of interest except that they were planning to implement governors in different systems, which wouldn't mean anything, except, it would eventually make the job of the Empire taking power again one day easier.

After the breifing he set off on taking Galen to quarter's that were prepared for her. She got one of the best suites they had. It even had fresh sets of clothing ( ) for her to change into. Of course, Actar made sure the doors would be guarded at all times, and when she chose to leave the room she would be followed by a plain clothed officer.

Ever since I was a little girl I had heard horror stories of the Empire of Old, of the evil Sith Lord Palpatine and his series of henchmen who had helped him in his rise to infamy. Of the dark days of the galaxy, and all the torture and killing and general ruin. Of the now famous battles at Yavin 4, and Endor, and the shaky rise afterward of the New Republic. I had heard that after the demise of Palpatine and the taking back of the Empire by New Republicans, that pockets of the old still existed somewhere, still in enough force to perhaps one day pose another real threat once again.

But somehow, as I looked about, realizing that this was that somewhere, and taking in as much as I could in the wake of...Admiral Actar?! Sheesh... So that was his name....-- somehow, I didn't feel... well... threatened here.

And I knew very well that I ought to be.

I kept my eyes open and my mouth closed. Luckily, no one bothered to come up inquiring about me other than one military type, who my high-ranking captor smoothly turned aside. I wondered briefly why his inquiry was cut so short... and indeed, why he had inquired in the first place. Surely someone as unassuming as lil ol me didn't warrant the curiosity of another ranked officer?

I filed this little bit of data away, and followed the admiral, feeling somewhat like a nerf calf being hauled off to find its mother. Before I could see too much...I'm sure he took me by some circuitous route so as not to risk my viewing anything of any military value.... we were inside a rather snazzy-looking building, and whisking up a gravity shaft to an upper level.

I stepped out onto carpet so thick my feet thought they had died and gone to heaven. But they were in for a bigger treat...

I followed along behind the broad back of Actar, still looking furtively about, when I quite suddenly smacked into him. We had come to a stop before a greel-wood door. My heartbeat quickened involuntarily at the sight of that door; the last time I had been confronted by such, it had opened to reveal a Mr. Gravin Dark, who had slapped me into a Force Cage and had taken be off to be presented to a Sith Darth... and my sister. I tensed, especially since the admiral had made no remark to my walking into him.

But no, the door opened to a luxurious suite of rooms. Now my feet were literally buried in the pile of the carpet they trod, well... through. I walked in, gawping like a schoolgirl at the sight of the precious pieces of art, the expensive satins and woodworks and bowls of dainties and lady's clothes I saw spread before me like a feast.

I shut my mouth, and swallowed. This was all very, very tempting... but the Empire?!

I blinked, and forced myself to remain at rigid attention. Admiral Actar went forward into the room and stopped at a balconied doorway, as though in mute reminder that we were up way too high for me to jump. He then turned around and just looked at me without saying a word.

I wanted to freshen in the worst way. I wanted food, and about six month's sleep. I wanted safety and security and friendship and...

...and I knew if I continued along those lines I'd not only never get anywhere, I'd go mad. I straightened up a little bit, then drew in a deep breath and looked Actar straight in those compelling eyes he had.

"Are you going to tell me the truth of why you really took me, tell me how much of a prisoner I am here, and tell me now? Or are you going to let me freshen up a little...?"

"I'll go. You freshen up, I'll come back later tonight, unless you're asleep. I'll send up some food as soon as possible. You're welcome to leave your quarter's, but remember, there are some pretty powerfull people looking for you, stay alert." He looked at the mess she was right then. He really hadn't noticed before, he shook his head and laughed and walked out of the room.

He made his way back to Admiral Swatzi, who said right away with a smile, "So, who is she?"
He smiled and replied, "Just a girl, I rescued."
"Just a girl?"
"Well, she's not, exactly, just a girl. Apparently she's a pretty....hot commodity. Wanted by pretty powerfull people, too."
"And are these people planning on coming after her?"
"Well, I know one is, but.....just watch for any approaching ships that are coming towards the city. And have men out there looking, technology may not pick it up."
"Alright, I'll put the men on high alert, tell them to watch out for anything suspicious, and not let anything in or out without clearance...but how long will this have to last? We can't keep her here, if this threat wil be here like this."
"I know we can't....hopefully we'll kill whoever's after her," he said with a smile, "Well, I think I'll take a nap, wake me if anything important happens." And off he went to his quarters, to sleep.

That man was almost insufferable, the way he kept me offguard. The last thing I expected was for him to laugh, suggest I refresh myself, promise to return in the evening...

...and then just up and leave?!

I stood there, swaying a bit, blinking as the door to my suites closed upon his departure. For a moment my mind went completely blank, and I sank bonelessly to the floor.

The carpet reached up to me like the caress of a lover. I lay back, trying to concentrate, trying to figure out if there was any way in Hell's Seven Circles that I could keep my baby out of the clutches of this guy or whoever else might be out there, clawed hands outstretched like some evil bird of prey. For I wasn't stupid enough to really believe that this guy was interested in helping me out of sheer altruism.

I pondered the thought, letting my mind wander along that pathway with growing drowsiness. Nope, it was the baby; it had to be for that reason that he took me. But there was something about him that, strangely enough, didn't provoke fear in me any longer. Not quite... trust, but at least a lack of trepidation. Something about this guy... I knew I should fear him with all my being, that part of him was somehow a complete antithesis to me... yet I did not. Something I couldn't put my finger on....

I jerked upright, realizing I had almost fallen asleep where I lay. I didn't want to present that image should the admiral return to my suites; with a small groan I climbed upright once again and headed to the 'fresher.

I kept it short, although every cell in my body cried out fervently for me to stay there at least an hour, luxuriating in the unexpected delight of hot, running water! No sonics or mists here; what a surprise!

Emerging from the fresher feeling somewhat human again, I rummaged around in the intricately carved closet nearby, uncovering a Kaladorian spider-silk nightgown of the softest rosey gold. It went well with my coloring; not that anyone was here to take in that particular sight.

But for once... just once in what I suspected might be a very long escapade to come, I wanted to feel...

...feminine.

And Terrin was even more annoyed that Moff Krenoff had sent him to ask for the ships, and didn't have the nerve to do it himself. Somehow Terrin suspected that he knew they'd be turned down all along, and that he just didn't have the guts to face the music.

What was even worse was that despite the rejection notice that he had left with the Moff's secretary, the Moff still had requested that Terrin meet him in his chambers.

Irritated, Terrin stomped in, closed the door, and sat down in a chair across from the Moff in what appeared to be living quarters.

"Danner, you are getting a little too childish for my taste," Moff Krenoff said from the other side of the room. "I wonder if you still want your pay."

With the mention of money, Terrin perked up a little. Maybe finally this would all be coming to an end...

"Good," the Moff said smiling wickedly, "Now I have your attention. I have some news that might be of interest to you, and I have a job for you."

Great, another job. Here we go again in the never-ending loophole. Terrin wished he'd never gotten involved in this mess.

"Listen up," the Moff scolded, as though knowing what was going through Terrin's head. "One of our operatives has reported that a group of three Jedi and a little girl about the age of six were seen on the Blue Asteroid. They are apparently searching for a Praxeum student who was captured from Yavin IV. One of the Jedi, Cella Polaini, highered a pilot to help her track a ship she believes the student is being held prisoner aboard."

"So?" Terrin said, thinking that this was a waste of his time.

"And Shayla Stargazer hasn't been heard from by her coorporation in several days..."

Terrin hated it when the Moff strung him along like this. "Are you suggesting the captive is Shayla?" Terrin said, rolling his eyes. "You don't know her the way I do, Krenoff. She wouldn't let herself be captured like that. She's too smart for it."

"Okay, Mr. Danner, if you are so sure of that, tell me why the Jedi think that Shayla's R2 droid Izzy is important to locating the captive student. And tell me why Izzy was seen with the group and that Shayla WASN'T."

Terrin frowned a little, now intrigued. Shayla NEVER left Izzy with anyone. The little droid, obnoxious though she could be, was as loyal as any person and never left Shayla's side unless she was forced to. Maybe the Moff had a point after all.

"Allright, I'll buy that it's suspicious," Terrin finally agreed. "But what do you want me to do about it?"

"The ship the Polaini woman is following appears to be one that, although it has fallen from our tracking devices recently, was last seen pursuit of another shuttle that has been to Yavin IV and has now landed here, on Ambria."

At that point the Moff paused to see if he still had Terrin's attention. Satisfied that he did, he continued. "The shuttle that landed here on Ambria is owned by an Admiral Actar. I want you to find this Actar, and find out why he has been to Yavin IV. Ask him if he knows he is being followed, and if he knows what student might be missing from the Praxeum. If he knows anything about the whereabouts of Shayla Stargazer Petrolu, I want you to make an ally with him and suck him for all the information he is worth."

Oh, is that all, Terrin thought to himself. "And if he knows nothing or will say nothing?" Terrin asked instead.

"Then you do what it is you information smugglers do," Krenoff said sarcastically. "You find a way to get that information, or else. Got it?"

"Yeah, got it. This just better be worth the pay you are giving me."

Which I did, finally.

The soft light of quickening dusk filtered the room, making everything appear, if possible, even richer and more well-appointed than it actually was. The greel-wood shone as with an inner flame, the satiny bed-clothing glimmered as though dusted with starlight. I stretched again, and swung my feet over the side of the bed.

I glanced to a large and wonderfully handcarved chrono unobtrusively standing in a shadowed corner. Hmmm... if Admiral Actar was a man of his word-- and something told me he was --he would soon be arriving. Assuming, of course, that the dinner hour on Ambria was the same as it was on any inhabited and civilized planet.

I got to my feet, and attacked the 'fresher with renewed vigor, keeping the promise I had earlier made to it. I didn't come out for a solid hour.

Relaxed, refreshed, and very very clean, I went to the closet and poked in it's spacious depths. Egads, judging from the feel of the material in here, just one of these various and sundry gowns and outfits would take a year of Dad's salary...

And they were there for me? Well... ok, Galen ol' girl, let's be realistic. They were probably here for whatever series of ladies marched through this suite on one occasion or another, for whatever purpose. But let's not look a gift ronto in the mouth...

I finally withdrew with a simple but wonderfully elegant gown spun of that same spider-silk Kaladore is so famous for. It was a deep, midnight blue, and sprinkled liberally with tiny iridescent silver-blue Krayt dragon seed-pearls. It fit in all the right places, too.

Going back to the closet, I poked some more, and emerged with a pair of soft nerf-calf leather sandals. They were wonderful; it was like going barefoot in the softest of grassy fields.

I gave myself a look-over in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall. Not bad, not bad. At least I wouldn't embarrass the Admiral if he had a need to parade me around in public or anything. No telling what was going to happen, but something told me to do my utmost to stay on this guy's good side.

I ran a quick comb through my hair, then finally finished my ministratios with the addition of crushed Krayt-dragon pearl glitter to the outside of my eyes, and my throat. A dab of color to my lips, and I was ready.

I walked over to the balcony, and just stood there, waiting to see how long it would take for this Admiral to return.

If he was really gonna return at all, that is.

I took a deep breath, and turned to face him.

The breath released itself in an involuntary puff. I scarcely recognized the admiral. For the first time that I had ever seen him, he was not in his black trenchcoat. Instead he wore full military dress regalia... complete with so many ribbons and decorations that he glittered like Coruscant on High Eve.

I swallowed, blinking at the finery which more than subtly reminded me of the authority, and probably power, that this man held. I took a small step forward, my mouth working.

It suddenly dawned on me that anything I could say would sound artificial, and shallow. I merely stood there, letting the quickening twilight silhouette me, and waited to hear what he would offer or say.

I sure hoped it was an invitation to dinner. I'm starved....

"Are you hungry?", he said quietly. She nodded. "Food is on it's way." He said, hoping for a reply from her.

He thought to himself about the current situation. How long would this last? Her sister had to be planning something....but what?

What was the deal here? I wondered to myself. Was I a prisoner... or something else? I really wished I could figure this guy out, or what it was he wanted... which I still was positive was the baby, but why in Hell's Seven Circles was I not only given this luxurious suite, but now was being asked if it met to my liking?

I unconsciously took hold of the material of my spider-silk dress, fiddled with it a little. "Uh-- thank you for these rooms," I stammered awkwardly. "It's really more than I expected to be given here."

The look that crossed his face was faintly... disappointed somehow. I swallowed, and continued. "I mean, I've been here and there around the spacelanes, but I've never had such a nice place to stay."

I winced at how contrived that statement sounded, how forced... all the while fighting back vivid images of much worse accommodations I had found myself in. For the next few moments nothing filled the gaping silence growing in leaps and bounds between us but greater silence; it was as though he was waiting for me to say something in particular. What that was, I couldn't begin to guess.

When another knock came on my door I about jumped out of my skin. I slid my eyes nervously in that direction, my heartbeat accelerating when I saw he wasn't even turning around. I tensed...

...but no, no Storm Troopers came bursting in to burst the strange little bubble I was in. No one came in with blasters blazing; no evil sentient was there to take me away yet again.

Instead a meek-looking servant-type entered the room, wheeling a heavily ladened table. He set it up over to one side, lit a candelabra in the middle of all the serving dishes, gave the admiral a stiff bow, and left.

I looked to the Admiral, my eyes wide and my mouth agape again. He seemed to be smiling at my discomfiture, whether at me or with the purpose of making me feel more at ease, I couldn't say....

I swallowed, trying to figure how to break this strange impasse we were in. This situation is getting beyond odd, I thought to myself. He almost acts as if he wants me to speak first... but what about I couldn't say....

Then I thought of something. I cleared my throat a little. "Earlier, when you...rescued me," I began, "you mentioned that my sister was coming, and that the Jedi wouldn't be able to protect me from her."

I stopped for a moment, searching his eyes. They were like moss-covered stones, absolutely unreadable. Well Galen ol girl, in for a credit....

"How in Hell's Seven Circles do you know about my sister, and who do you think you are that you can protect me from her? I don't think you realize what she is; if you really did, you'd probably...."

I cut off my little outburst, uncomfortably aware of his gaze which still pinned mine to his. Careful, Galen, don't bite the hand that is feeding you....

That thought provoked another; in an attempt to divert his attention from the direction my words had been travelling, I gestured toward the heavily laden table.

He looked her in the eyes, hoping to easily see an answer. Nothing, she waited there, perhaps for the table to be moved outside? He took the table by it's handles and wheeled it out onto the balcony, Galen followed him. He wished she wouldn't be so...intimidated by him. He understood why she would be, of course, but he can be nice sometimes, a lot of the time, actually.

"Take what you want," he said to her, "there's plenty here." They both filled their plates with food and went to sit. They sat across from each other and soon enough, that eerie silence that has plagued their short relationship, was back again. But, it wouldn't stay long this time, there was too much to say.

"So....what exactly would you like to know?"

The plate in my hand just about dropped with my jaw as the admiral's "innocent" statement reached my ears. What do I want to know?!

I want to know what you know about my sister...

I want to know exactly why you came to the Praxeum world, oh such a coincidence that I was there then as well...

I want to know why you took me the two times you did...

...why I am now a prisoner, now not, now treated with less respect than one would give a beast, then like a veritable queen....

I finally settled on the latter. Carefully setting my platter down, I stood up and walked over to the balcony. There I stood with my back to Actar, gazing out over the twinkling lights spread like stars that had fallen to earth.

I whirled suddenly, and eyed him intently.

"I want to know if I am free to leave here, wherever this is, if I wish to do so."

I looked him straight in the eye, waiting... then, much to my own surprise I raised my hand. "Wait."

I swallowed thickly, staring at my hand like it wasn't my own. "Wait," I repeated in a lower tone of voice. "Don't answer that, please, not now. I- I don't want to hear you say it."

Besides, I think I already know the answer to that. The fact that I had been allowed to attend the debriefing upon our arrival here suddenly flashed to the forefront of my mind. Sure as there's Treasure on Roon, I was still prisoner; why else would I have been allowed to be at that debriefing if not for the fact that I obviously could not leave this place? And to hear Actars response to my question outright, whether truth or lie, would only start rebuilding that weird wall between us once again.

I glanced down at the floor a moment, then slowly returned to the table where the Admiral still remained seated. Forcing a little smile on my face, I seated myself across from him, leaned over the table, and once again looked deeply into his greeny-brown eyes.

I reached out, and delicately plucked a t'plyyk fruit from a bowl, took a bite of it, and chewed thoughtfully. Wiping my mouth, I pursed my lips, wishing circumstances were far different than they were.

This is reality, Galen. Deal with it.

I looked down at the pearl-encrusted dress I wore, seeing nothing but bitter mockery in it's folds. I carefully straightened a small wrinkle, then looked up to Actar again. I shivered slightly with the sudden realization that every subtle movement I might make, every little nuance, did not go unnoticed by those piercing eyes. I wondered again what was going on in his head, if I'd ever know the answer to that. If indeed I really wanted to know.

I shuddered again. Time to head off in another, safer, direction....

"How do you know about my sister?" I asked.

I closed my eyes, an involuntary shudder tremoring through my body as I remembered my past experiences on that awful planet. The fear and despair I went through, the pain. All at the expense of my "dear" sister, and the rebel Noghri at her command at the time.

He knows her from Khar Delba?

My eyes flew open, and resolve firmed within me. I carefully set the t'plyyk fruit back into the bowl, carefully straightened yet one more small wrinkle in the dress. Then I leaned across the table and pinned this man, this admiral, this person... whatever and whoever he really was... with my eyes.

"You know I'm going to do everything in my power to fight you, and to get away from this place," I said softly. "If you don't seem to worry about my sister, even after somehow knowing her as you do, then you are far more dangerous than I first thought."

"Oh shut up!" I muttered, getting to my feet. I began pacing about, red anger beginning to build within me.

"Don't count on it, babe..." Don't count on it, babe!?!

The thought that he had entered my mind with such ease, so unexpectedly, and planted that small statement there was totally unbearable. I stalked to the balcony, looked out over the city's lights.

"Damn him anyway!" I seethed to myself. I threw the fruit over the rail for good measure. "What in Hell's Seven Circles does he expect from me anyway? What does he want from me... gratitude?!"

I whirled and stormed back into the room, kicking over the chair he had been sitting in as I passed it, just for the sheer pleasure of it. Reaching my door, I rattled the knob.

Surprisingly, it obligingly turned. I yanked it open, and totally disregarding the plains-clothed guard stationed outside, stomped out into the hall. I glared at the guard; he actually stepped back a step in utter surprise.

I turned to see the admiral disappearing down the hall.

"You- you...!" I raged. I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. Likewise I couldn't even figure out why in the Galaxy I was out in the hall, hollering after him like a fishwife.

I stopped myself, biting off the words rising in my throat. Like three kinds of fool, I just stood there, and for a moment merely watched his retreating back.

Suddenly I could contain the words no longer. "Why in Hell's Seven Circles are you being so nice to me, anyway?"

The words flung from between my lips echoed down the hall, terminating with a loud "WHOMP!" as, blind anger fully in control now, my fist collided with and broke a hole into the wall of the grand Imperial Headquarters I was being kept in. I withdrew my fist, scarcely noticing the pain throbbing in it, and just stood there, almost totally oblivious to the hands of the guard which were now being placed about my shoulders.

Wasn't he even gonna turn around?!

He turned around, more calm now, and walked back to her and got right in her face and whispered, "I don't know, and since we both don't know I would think you would watch what you say and do for fear of being sent to the detention area, where you belong, instead fo this grand suite." He turned around and left, without giving her a chance to reply to what he had said.

There I sat on the bed, unheeding to the small "click" as the lock to the door was turned this time.

Watch it? I'd better watch it?

I sat there, letting the rage fill me again. Oh no, Admiral. You'd better watch it. You'd better, or....

The thought broke off before it reached completion, as the utter futility of it sank into me. Or... what?

I fell backwards onto the bed, rubbing my face with my throbbing hand. Dry-eyed, I stared up at the ceiling of my beautiful and oh so well appointed prison.

Or what, Galen ol' girl? What for all the treasure on Roon do you really think you're gonna do? This guy has some kind of power; sheesh, does everyone in the entire Galaxy have it but me?

Oh Khaandon, if only Sorben were here; he'd think of something...

I bit that thought off in the bud, knowing full well I'd never see him again, that from now on I was on my own.

And that, my girl, is the real crux of the matter, isn't it? You're alone... even here. You insist on it, you wallow in this pity...

...here this guy really did rescue you from that black-eyed hellcat, and you tell him you're gonna fight him... My eyes widened as this thought struck me. I hadn't considered it before; indeed, that witch was not one I wanted to ever run across again in my life; the fact that this man had indeed snatched me from her clutches perhaps did in turn warrant a little gratitude from me.

But- but he wants the baby, doesn't he? Well... doesn't he? I considered that thought, thinking hard. Never once had he made any indication that was what he was after. Never. I had been operating on pure assumption.

I sighed, running both hands through my hair. Before my eyes, the ornately designed ceiling blurred a bit. Hell's Seven Circles, I moped miserably. I've probably blown it all sky high now. I'll probably be sent off to rot in some Impy detention cell now, and I'll never get to tell him I'm sorry.

Well, ol girl, I thought to myself. Not too much you can do about events right now. If he's mad at you, then he's mad at you... and if you're lucky you might get a chance to apologize.

If, on the other hand, he's not... well, then you won't need to, will you?

No need to be so down in the face; ok, he's gone. But dinner isn't.

I got to my feet, and walked out onto the balcony again. I seated myself at the table set for two, looked out across the twinkling lights of Bim Renna. For a long moment I merely contemplated them, trying to lose myself in them, making myself believe they were indeed stars that had fallen to earth, and once again I was out among them.

That's where you're happiest now, isn't it Galen?

The question was an unsettling one, all the more so coming on the wake of the suspicion that I might very well be grounded for some time to come.

I sighed again, wondering what in Hell's Seven Circles I was gonna do during that downtime. Then slowly, woodenly, I finished the dinner in front of me.

I sat there, staring at the lights and seeing everything and nothing, for a long time afterward. Suddenly it took entirely too much energy to even get up and change for bed. I lost all sense of time....

There was an eerie silence in the room. Admiral Swatzi was the first to speak, ".....so, what's wrong?"

Actar, turned his head to face his friend and replied, "Oh, nothing of any real importance.

"I don't believe you..."
"Well, good, because I was lying," Actar said as he stood up, "you wanna know what we're in for?"
"I'm not sure, I'm not too keen on bad news, and I'm guessing that's what it will be."
"As always my friend..." He said with a small grin.
"Then go ahead, tell me..."
"Well," he sighed, "The woman I brought here, her sister, she's bad news. And I think she's coming here. And to add to that, I don't know why the hell I brought her here. In all honesty, I'd be better off just killing her, and giving no chance of her child living."
"What's so important about her child?"
Admiral Actar walked out onto the balcony, "Her child......it's strong in the force." Admiral Swatzi followed him onto the balcony, "and could cause considerable damage to whoever doesn't get ahold of it, and it just seems safer to not let anyone have it. We could give it to the Jedi, let them teach it, but you know how I feel about them."
Admiral Swatzi couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could a child become such a threat to the galaxy? "Why don't we keep it, and use it to our advantage then?"

It was the sound of the door being unlocked from the outside, followed quickly by a barely perceptible sigh as it moved open.

I blinked again, continuing to stare at the ceiling. Then I drew in a deep breath. Only one man would enter my room without preamble, remaining silent. My eyes remained fixed on the intricate designs above me, as I collected my demeanor and carefully began to choose my words.

"Admiral," I finally began a bit hesitantly. "I- I want to apologize for my behavior at dinner. It was rude and totally inacceptable, and I just want you to know that I do appreciate your help in getting me away from... who ever in Hell's Seventh Circle that witch was. I'm afraid I've been mistrusting you for no really good reason, and I want to say I'm sorry.

"It's just that..." I began to go off in a new direction, suddenly wanting to explain everything to this man. Maybe he could help me even more than he had already.

I rolled from my back to my side in order to face Admiral Actar directly...

...only it wasn't Actar at all who stood in the entryway, a slightly bemused look on his face. It was that other military-type Actar had debriefed when we first arrived.

I froze like a gundar in headlights.

Sheesh, ol girl! When the heck are ya ever gonna learn to look before you leap...?

So Terrin resorted to the most annoying thing he possibly could to get a hold of Actar...and made his way to the Admiral's suite.

Rather brazenly, he knocked on the door. The Admiral was probably asleep. But he didn't care. When no one answered, Terrin knocked again, even more loudly.

At last, the door lock snapped open and a face peered out. A rather angry-looking face.

Terrin figured he'd better explain himself before the Admiral slammed the door in his face. "I'm Terrin Danner. I'm here to inquire about Jedi Praxeum prisoner that you might have information on."

Although he still clearly looked put out about being awakened at this hour, the Admiral seemed to consider what Terrin had just told him, and furthermore he looked a little confused...maybe even a little worried.

Terrin decided he'd take this as a good sign. "Can we talk?"

"I'm Admiral Swatzi...we met earlier but were never properly introduced," he said, "I hope you like your room, it's one of our best suites...."

Thank Khaandon I'm still dressed, I thought to myself, fingering the silky Kaladorian spider-silk I was wearing. The way my mind has been wandering I might have changed into sleeping garb without realizing it...

I snapped my gaze up again, straight into those still slightly bemused eyes.

I cleared my throat.

"Can I ask what in Hell's Seven Circles you're doing here, and do you always enter a lady's room without knocking?" I shot out all in one breath.

I glared at the man, then calmed down a little as common courtesy slowly wormed it's way into my head. I sighed a little.

Sheesh, ol girl, there you go again. Wonderful string of friends you're going to end up leaving in your wake the way you're going...

"Excuse me," I began again, my tone of voice more civil. "It's just that you- startled me. I really didn't mean to be so abrupt."

I paused a bit, gritting my teeth, very much conscious of how shallow the words I was spouting were sounding. I tried again.

"Um- these rooms are, well, more than I ever expected," I said. "If you ever run into that Admiral Actar friend of yours, would you please tell him that I'm really grateful for being here and not... well, for being here?

"And now, can I ask why you're here yourself?" I finished, quietly sitting back on the bed, my fingers working the rich fabric of the spread upon which I sat.

Years might have passed in the "normal" spacetime continuum as the Chosen Daughter hunkered in her hidden orbit above Ambria, idly waiting for the correct moment to either reach out into that eerie less than void, or travel out into the real one. Or- perhaps only fleeting seconds had ensued since she had hidden herself thus. Even with all the Powers she carried and commanded, Graysith really had no clear sense of the passage of time outside the sphere of elseness in which she had hidden her ship.

What she was fully aware of, however, was the fact that no matter how "timeless" she felt in the elseness in which she lingered, the being named Shayla was experiencing something far worse. For that being had no idea there was even a possibility of the existence of the the strange non-space between seconds, much less that it was able to be penetrated by living flesh.

The null-ness of it must have been terrifying.

Graysith smiled as she contemplated the juicy picture that thought conjured in her mind. She yawned and stretched; then, idly giving M'wonBo'o's muscular neck a playful tweak, she sent forth a tendril of her mind once again, following the path she had broken there, seeking the mind she planned likewise to break.

Her smile deepened to blackened evil as she encountered the depth of the terror Shayla was battling with. As insidious as a Stennes shifter, the tendril easily breached what feeble mental barriers Shayla still managed to maintain, and wormed icily into the deepest recesses of her being. It's camoflague blended seamlessly with the growing terrors and inner demons which danced in Shayla's mind as, probing with almost gentle persistence, it sought even more fuel for the fire Graysith intended to ignite.

That fuel was found with ease. Erik....

The Chosen Daughter inspected the sudden flare of warmth associated with this deeply hidden image, uncomfortably aware of the likeness this bore to a turquoise-eyed image she once had hidden away deeply within her own psyche, and as jealously guarded.

For a moment longer she stopped there, a small part of her own being showing a surprising gentleness in wanting to back away from that hoarded image, to leave it alone to the woman who hoarded it, recalling the welcomed warmth of that similar kernel once hoarded within her own soul.

Then the fading turquoise was overwhelmed by onrushing crimson, the lingering warmth she yet might have been holding yielded to flames more intense than coronal plasmas. Filled with fire and fury, she reached into Shayla's mind with all the care of a stampeding ronto, grasped the image of the one called Erik, and played with it.

Twisted it into pure grief, and with that image implanted securely into Shayla's mind the certainty that her love knew she was dead, and sought her no longer.

A vaccuum is not a dense enough medium to carry sound, but Graysith clearly heard the despairing moan suddenly emanating from Shayla with the clarity of a bell.

They seek you not... she whispered quietly into Shayla's trembling mind. HE seeks you no longer. To them you are dead; they have other tasks with which to occupy themselves.

And look.... An image of Erik with another woman crept into Shayla's mind with silent certainty, someone known to Shayla, one named... Cella....

...look. Already he has found another, you are forgotten as a fleeting thought on the wind.

I, however, I do not forget you, nor do I forsake you. I can give you surcease of the pain you feel. I can end your terrors.

Feel, my... sister....

With masterful timing, Graysith sent a flash of warmth and comfort flooding into Shayla, offerring a lifeline for her to grasp. Her own image floated to the front of Shayla's mind, her violet eyes calm and beckoning, her smile genuine, her hand offered in comradely sistership. Something close to but not quite akin to love likewise flooded Shayla, attempting to fill the little void beginning to grow around that image of Erik.

The choice is yours to make. I will not force you.

Aboard her ship, Graysith shifted her weight in her navseat, lounging more deeply and comfortably therein, as she waited to feel how the young woman would respond.

No Erik! I'm here! I'm here and you cannot reach me...cannot find me...

"I, however, I do not forget you, nor do I forsake you. I can give you surcease of the pain you feel. I can end your terrors," the woman from what seemed so long ago said to her...the woman who was in her head...

Shayla almost succumbed to her terror again, longing for his touch, and longing to be away from this awful nothingness. Then logic began to seep through.

If I can see things from the past in this void, things that have already happened and cannot possibly be happening again, then what is to say that what I'm seeing now, in my head, is no more than a vision of what COULD come, and not absolute truth?

And how she longed to be back to reality. More than anyone could possibly know, except one....

POTENTIAL...TRUE POTENTIAL... If only she'd trust in herself...

Time to face reality, Shayla, she thought to herself. You are stuck here so long as you continue with these ridiculous emotional battles. These emotions, the ones you have been so desperately seeking, are doing you little good unless you learn to control them. And that will take time, time you don't have to be sitting here in absolute nothingness fighting a battle you cannot win.

POTENTIAL, TRUE POTENTIAL...

Shayla's mind was made up. She had to trust herself on this one, and she needed reality now more than ever. All she had to do was surrender and accept the hand this woman had offered. That was all...

Although the possible outcomes of this move could prove disastrous, there was no reason to worry about what might happen in the future just yet, for it was all in motion. For the present, Shayla knew she needed this woman's help, and if she wanted out of the void, accept it she would.

From deep within his hidden Temple, Aelvedaar, her Sith Sorcerer mentor and love, reached out across the parsecs, and with almost offhand ease pierced the barrier separating the elseness from the spacetime continuum. His flaming eyes glowed in her mind, filling her heart with their flames as he sent forth his approval and and simultaneous warning.

"My love," his deep bass voice rumbled through Graysith like a stormcloud. "In what thou art attempting, thou art to be commended. But take care, my sweet. All may not be as it seems. It has been said by more than one that always in motion the future is; take care in thy cementing of this Being's."

Graysith bowed her head in deference to her Lord, and sent forth a somewhat terse reply. "This one shall join with me in our Quest, my love," she shot back smoothly. "A useful Tool she could prove to be.

"If not, she shall be discarded as superfluous."

The powerful image of the horned Sorcerer nodded in approval, and sent forth a final rush of something akin to love, with which to fill and sustain the woman he had chosen. Then he closed the link, and faded from her essence.

That final sensation created a responding flare in Graysith, and her hand tightened even more about the small one she was holding. A smile creased her pale features as she directed her full attention to Shayla once again.

"A wise decision this is, my sister-to-be." She sent the words probing smoothly into Shayla's mind, where they coiled like twining vines and took root. Her smiled broadened as, searching further, she encountered no lingering resistance to them there. "I look forward greatly to the closeness we shall have. It has been long since I have had One to call sister...."

For a brief moment she paused, as an image of another woman brushed fleetingly to the forefront of her thoughts. One dressed in warrior black, her eyes matching her garb, her hair a raven's-wing plait cascading down the side of her head to her waist. Gouyen Chee... somehow, Graysith knew her blood-bonded sister would approve of what she was doing. She smiled as she remembered her, and allowed herself a short moment to hope their paths would once more cross one day.

Then she firmed, and directed her full concentration upon Shayla. Upon her brow, the Glyph ignited, shooting rapidly up the electromagnetic spectrum into the range of immense energy, flooding the bridge of her ship with it's icy fire. Beside her, M'wonBo'o leapt to his feet, startled. He threw back his head, his howl reverberating through the bridge like the onslaught of an avalanche.

Graysith gave an imperceptible pull... and with stunning rapidity Shayla was extricated from null-ness into a world of fire and ice and thunder. The Chosen Daughter smiled as she viewed Shayla's arrival upon her ship.

And she also felt terror creeping up in her mind again.

She'd wanted out of the void of her mind, and she had decided to do whatever it took to get out. But had she made the right choice?

Shayla reminded herself that the future is always in motion, and that she was ultimately in control of her own actions.

Be logical, Shayla she thought to herself.

The woman before her seemed pleased to see her, nd her words confirmed that.

"It is good that you have joined me..."

Was it, now?

Shayla reminded herself that she needed, for the moment, to push her emotions to the background. They were jumbled, weren't making sense, and were getting in her way. She didn't have time for that right now.

So she decided to choose her words carefully.

"I thank you for returning me to reality," she said, staying very calm and lucid. Truthfully, her head was still spinning and she felt faint and shakey. "I..." she started the sentence, intending to ask for a place where she might rest for a time. But her physical body finally took over and demanded what it needed...sleep. The adreline that had been coursing through her veins, along with what little sleep she'd actually had during the whole time, had finally run out.

The Admiral seemed willing enough to listen, so Terrin figured he'd play nice.

"Well, my sources tell me that you have recently been to Yavin IV, and until recently when you arrived here on Ambria were being trailed by a shuttle that has disappeared from our scopes. That shuttle is holding hostage a woman named Shayla Stargazer Petrolu, a student at the Jedi Praxeum."

Terrin stopped here momentarily to observe the Admiral's reaction to what he was telling him. Actar remained pretty impassive, but he was at least hearing Terrin out.

"I was wondering," Terrin continued, "if you might have any leads on who is following you, and who might be interested in taking a mere Jedi in training. And furthermore, I was wondering if you might be able to explain to me how to find this shuttle," he finished.

Actar seemed to be looking straight through him at this point, and Terrin didn't know if that was a good sign. Actar might not know what was going on with Shayla, but he out to know that he should be damned concerned about a stray shuttle following him from Yavin into Ambria.

Terrin waited for the Admiral's response, hoping for the best he could get...

Have I made the correct choice with this One, my love? The thought sped silkily out into the void, seeking the mind of Aelvedaar so very distant, and so very quiet. Graysith knew she would get no reply to this question; it was up to her to see if she had chosen wisely or not.

But now was not the time. Now was the time to give this woman the space to heal, and to show her that her intentions were sincere. There was plenty of time to come in which the Chosen Daughter could divine whether the now-loosened grasp Shayla had placed upon her hand was genuine or not.

She smiled a quick little smile, and tightened her hold on the limp body she held in her arms. Then her voice lifted in a quiet command.

"M'wonBo'o," she called. "Your assistance."

From where he was laying, finally quiet, the massive tuk'ata lifted his sleek head, his pupilless eyes questing, his face-tendrils sensing. In one fluid movement he rose to his feet, and claws clicking, moved to the side of his blood-hunt companion and mistress. He shoved his head against her side, and made no growl or complaint as Graysith carefully lowered the unconscious Shayla onto his back.

"Let us take this one to her quarters that she might rest," she commanded gently, one hand reaching down to smooth the sweat-slicked hair from Shayla's face. "There is time anon to make our plans for... or with... this woman."

Together they carried Shayla from the bridge of Graysith's ship, the tuk'ata's thoughts full of unvoiced queries, and the Chosen Daughter's full of equally unvoiced designs.

Then she remembered. She had been in a void, when she finally had decided to no longer succumb to her emotions, and had been yanked from the void back into reality...to here, on a shuttle with a woman she did not know, and a being that she did not understand.

With her eyes half open, Shayla attempted to sit up, and found that her head was still spinning, and felt a wave of nausea threaten to take hold of her.

Fine, she thought to herself. She laid back on the pillow and moved both hands to her face, rubbing her eyes. Slowly, she opened her eyes fully, and scanned her dim surroundings.

She found herself on a bed in a small room with white walls and no decoration. To her right she noticed a refresher station, which looked rather inviting. If only I could stop this confounded spinning in my head.

Then something else occurred to her. She was in the room alone. Knowing it would be impossible for the woman to trust her just yet, she figured that she had been locked in. She'd have investigate that later, when she felt more up to it.

Shayla wondered what exactly this woman wanted with her, and what she had planned. And she was also curious as to how much of her Force capablilties she could still use, after all the turmoil. She stretched out to the Force, and discovered it indeed was there, and that the woman was nearby, possibly in the room next to her. However, beyond the shuttle, nothing else seemed to exist.

Fine again, Shayla thought. If no one else out there knows whether I exist or not, I'll just have to take care of myself.

Determined to get up and visit the 'fresher, Shayla attempted sitting up again. The nausea threatened to return, but this time she fought it, using her will and a little bit of Force-channeling to shove it off.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she stood up a little hastily, and felt them buckle. She caught the side of the bed and pulled herself back up, this time taking care to rise more easily. Slowly and carefully, she headed for the refresher.

"I'm working for Moff Krenoff. We are after a woman named Shayla Stargazer, who has currently left her information broking agency to complete some training as a Jedi that she started when she was younger. Her corporation uncovered some nasty information on Krenoff that should have been kept underground, and the Moff desires her back so that he can do a little bargaining with her," Terrin explained pausing.

He intended to pretty much stop with that, but he felt it necessary to add a little more detail to the threat Shayla could possibly pose. "Shayla has many sources for information, and to make matters worse she is able to use her untrained Force abilities very well to get what she wants. We need to find her, soon."

Ambria. Somewhere upon its surface, that infuriating Admiral had taken her sister. What he had planned doing with her did not concern her; what did was the simple fact that Galen was her prey, and she had been cheated of it. Her violet eyes narrowed as the Glyph flared her momentary fury; then she calmed.

Galen was below. The newcomer chosen by the Chosen Daughter was here. Yet there was something else intruding within this rather simplistic triangle, something which niggled around the edges of her senses like a the fluttering wings of a Toydarian.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the slight disturbance she was sensing. Gradually there came into her thoughts the image of a man, a tall young man standing before one decked in military finery...

...a man who called himself Terrin, and who was after...

Shayla.

Graysith's eyes snapped open as she turned this new bit of information around in her head. She turned halfway around, her mental gaze piercing through the very bulwarks of her ship, zeroing in upon the young woman who even now was shakily beginning to regain her strength.

The strength of the emotion which roiled up from her soul regarding this triangle surprised her. For although she had planned upon luring Shayla to her side just to use her for her own ends, she suddenly found that she didn't want anything to happen to her. There was something about the young padawan that beckoned to her; she felt a possessive surge rise through her with sudden heat.

Pursing her lips in determination, she turned back to the viewport, firming. So be it. The plan would be altered.

She would let no harm come to her new "sister."

But Khaandon help her blood one...

Closing her eyes, she raised her arms, the Glyph bursting forth with powerful energies, electromagnetic essences which reached out into the very nullness in which they were hidden, and broke open a brief gateway. Her arms still upraised, the Chosen Daughter opened her eyes, seeing the image of a small but glittering city on the other side of the portal she had created.

A deadly smile upon her face, she gracefully stepped through.

Behind her, M'wonBo'o raised his head to watch his Mistress as she faded from view. Then he padded to the entryway to the bridge, there to curl into a knotted mass of claw and fang and muscle. None would be allowed passage until his beloved Companion returned.

This guy was interested in me? Who in the name of Khaandon was he anyway, that he was interested in me?

And more importantly, why?

For a brief moment I considered the wisdom of clamming up and playing dumb, but I had a feeling he could see right through me if I tried anything along that line. That same little feeling was hollering at me that that was something I definitely did not want to happen.

I chewed my lip thoughtfully, trying to figure how to condense the last few months of my life into mere sentences. At length I decided that most of it didn't matter; not to me anymore, and certainly not to him.

I cleared my throat. "I'm running from my sister," I announced simply. "She's...uh- she's trying to kill me."

I paused a little uncomfortably, well aware of how melodramatic that sounded. Perhaps with a little clarification....

"For the baby," I finished. "She wants to take my baby, and kill me afterward.

"And as for me," I added hurriedly. "I am, or rather was, after her. She killed our father, and she needs to pay for that.

"But I don't think there's any way I'm going to bring her in, or change her back..."

The image of my sister going into that cave... and returning not my sister, but something Else. Something with glittering violet eyes and a weird Sigil and a strong arm which rose and fell, rose and fell, as it hammered a rock against our father's dear face.... Something which stalked me as a beast of prey stalks its next dinner, which left me to die alone in the dusty, sand-driven eternal Twilight of that hideous place, alone to bury Dad and to seek escape, to in turn seek... revenge.

I sighed a bit, then focused on the Admiral again. "I don't think you'd understand if I tried to explain it, for I don't understand it myself. I don't know if you really want to know.

"A part of me just wants to curl up and let all this madness go away." I sighed a bit ruefully. "But I know that can't be done.

"I don't know what the hell happened to my sister except I know she is dead. That thing coming after me is no sister of mine, and never will be again."

I paused to pace the room a bit, my heart rate quickening as the difficulty of my position rammed home with sudden force. Here I was, taken by Admiral Actar, supposedly into a haven of sorts. I, however, was not fool enough to underestimate my ex-sister; I knew she would scour the Galaxy until she found me.

What would these guys do then? Would they continue to give me succor and assistance? Or would they hand me over, wiping their collective hands in a "good riddance" gesture?

I whirled and pinned the Admiral's gaze with my own.

I drew in a sharp breath. "Coming here?" I zeroed in on that succinct statement. "If my sister is coming here?

"You know something, don't you? Oh Khaandon, we've got to do something; you don't know what you're gonna be up against!"

I closed my eyes briefly, recalling the few times I had witnessed her ungodly Powers in action... as well as when I had been on the receiving end of them. I gave an uncontrollable little shiver, which I'm sure did not go unnoticed by Swatzi.

My eyes snapped open as a new thought erupted in my head. "Look," I began quickly. "Why wait? I mean, why attempt getting me off-planet after the fact? If she's coming here, you'll never slip me past her."

I paused, weighing my next words, then burst forth with: "Why not now? You guys say you want to help me; well, why not get me outta here now? Believe me, all the military force you have at your disposal is gonna be bantha poo-doo to what she can do; the best escape is the single, stealthy kind.

"Believe me, I know..." My thoughts drifted back to the times I had managed to flee from her, with Sorben and K'kihl my comrades-in-arms.

Oh, Sorben. Dear Khaandon, how I miss you....

I jerked back to the reality of the moment. "In fact," I finished. "Why don't you just be nice and give me a ship or something, and just let me go? I can handle myself, and I'm really a pretty good pilot.

"But I have to get off-planet. I know you mean well, but I feel trapped here."

As she had noticed before, there wasn't much to her room. Just the refresher, the bed she had been in, and four white walls...

And a closet door to the left of the bed. Curious, Shayla opened the door and gasped. There before her she found a wardrobe full of the items she usually wore. She first spotted three everyday jumpsuits: one silver, one purple, and one white. She also found a couple of very elegant but modest evening dresses, one in purple, one in green, one in yellow and the other in silver. She also found two flightsuits, a siver and a purple.

Flightsuits???

The word seemed to ring in Shayla's head.

I'm a pilot...

Something else was bouncing around in her head about a silver flightsuit...a memory from somewhere and something that she wasn't quite ready to face.

I'm a pilot...I wonder if I get my own ship, since I have flightsuits?

She shoved the thought away. Of COURSE she wouldn't get a shuttle of her own. She would stay here, with her new-found friend, her sister......the only one around who still cared about her existence at all.

But why were these flightsuits here if she would never use them?

Shayla shook the thoughts off, realizing that she was once again feeling extremely tired. Deciding to slip on the purple jumpsuit, she took it from the hanger. After switching clothes, she hung the silk robe on the newly-vacated hanger, closed the closet door, and wandered back over to the bed.

Just a little more sleep...

"You would be interested in taking a Jedi in Training, perhaps you can answer that question yourself." He paused, closed his eyes and thought, The girl who disappeared at the Praxeum...that must be who Shayla is....

"The Shuttle..." he paused, "is Piloted by a woman...she's a Sith. In case you're confused, you don't want to mess with a Sith, especially her. You best bet at getting Shayla, is waiting here until she comes, and hope she dumps her. But, of course, you can do as you wish, but remember, I warned you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm tired and need my rest." He closed the door, not giving Terrin a chance to say anything.

He wasn't going to help me get off-planet, and Khaandon help us all but I know Jharmeen is on her way to get me. I'm never going to be safe, never never never....

I blinked back the sudden tears of desperation that flooded hotly into my eyes. No sense being seen as a weakling; now was when I had to be my absolute strongest.

And not only for myself.

"Look," I finally spoke up, swallowing back my rising panic. "It can't be as 'out of your control' as you say it is. You're what, an Admiral?"

I reared back and cocked my head, scrutinizing the insignia and ribbons and various sigils and decorations that colored his chest. "Yeah," I answered myself. "An Admiral.

"Surely you can, umm... bend the regs a little bit? Surely you have your own craft or something you can sneak me off-planet with? Surely you have the power to do something???"

I stopped, biting the words off with a click of my teeth before they sounded too much like begging. I never was one for begging.

"Look," I finished. "Just for a little bit. Just to get me away; then I'll let you bring me back. I promise."

I drew in a deep breath, forcing myself to keep from crossing my fingers behind my back. All I could do from that point was wait, and hope.

The most energy efficient weapon at her disposal, however, was the one which she now used as she walked completely unnoticed by the late-night population of the quieting city. With an effort synonymous to an afterthought, she kept herself easily hidden from the view of all who still roamed the streets, appearing to be merely another one of the citizens hastening on towards home. In thus a manner she strode purposefully along, unerringly homing in on the trail of fear and rising desperation she so clearly felt, and with equal clarity knew would lead her directly to Galen.

Then she came to an abrupt halt, sensing another. Him. That Other. The One she had met on Khar Delba....

Graysith pursed her lips, a slight frown creasing about the Glyph on her forehead as she pondered this newest sensation. What was he doing here? she wondered to herself. And why was she suddenly sensing a slight but slowly rising emotion of worry and concern that drifted from his essence like ebon smoke?

She closed her eyes, concentrating, seeking to investigate the two pathways which were both slowly but steadily increasing in intensity. The Glyph upon her browed flared slightly as, calling upon the awesome powers bestowed upon her by Aelvedaar, she reached out, ahead, into That Which Was Yet To Be, following both trails being blazed in the cementing Timescape...

Her eyes snapped open with sudden realization. The two paths were destined to converge. The Admiral was heading toward Galen.

She smiled an evil little smile to herself, and hastened on, her slim fingers playing about with the Tooth as a lover would caress the limbs of his beloved.

Soon, she promised silently, grimly. Soon...

She hastened on....

There upon the balcony of a residential facility stood a man, his outstretched arm pointing to the glittering star canopy which arced richly overhead. Positioned where it was in one of the outermost arms of the Galaxy, Ambrian nights were not only strewn with the "Milky Way" of its galactic core, but nearby galaxies shone like the jewels of a wealthy empress, highlighting the dark skies with a rainbow of shapes and colors.

At the side of the man stood a young boy, his mouth wide in wonder and awe, his ears open to receive the instruction clearly being delivered to him.

Graysith stood hidden, her head cocked slightly to one side as she contemplated the pair. The picture they presented jiggled a corresponding memory in her, which immediately resulted in a tendril of her essence snaking away via the link she maintained with the women she held quasi-captive aboard her ship.

Her eyes widened as she "saw" Shayla wander about the quarters given her, and deepened with dark pleasure when the young woman discovered the flightsuits Graysith had provided. She nodded to herself in approval as she watched Shayla dress herself and lay back upon the bed to rest once more.

"Ahh... my newfound sister," she purred a velvet whisper. "All shall readily be revealed to you...."

Her eyes closed in concentration as, conversely, the Sigil upon her forehead flared in abrupt and ultraviolet splendor. Dancing energies played and twined about her face, seeking, touching... and finally found the linked pathway. At lightspeed they darted up, out, into the Elseness which connects all things, combining their strengths with that inherent to all existing matter, and in such a way touched and then entered the mind of the sleeping Shayla.

Even in her trance-like state, Graysith smiled. The closed circuit between the two was still firmly implanted; she was still linked to Shayla's mind and memories.

With simple grace, the Chosen Daughter reached deeply into a hidden core of her own being, and found an almost forgotten image. One of herself, and her true sister Galen, laughingly assisting their xeno-archeologist father on a dig to a certain Sith site he had uncovered. With impeccable mastery, she tweaked the image of Galen, until it was Galen no longer but an image of Shayla who now laughed and sweated and dug side-by-side with them.

She took this new image, and inserted it carefully and deeply in Shayla's sleeping mind. Then with equally quiet care, she backed out.

Upon the surface of Ambria, standing unnoticed by the man and his son and indeed to any other passersby, the Chosen Daughter opened her eyes, and shivered. Then she firmed, and craned her head back as she too looked up to the sparkling starscape overhead.

"Strong you are, my young one," she whispered into the night. "And indeed sister to me you shall be."

A satisfied smile gracing her features, Graysith turned her attention and her stride back to her original purpose, that being ridding herself of the irksome being who had the effrontery to be her actual sister.

Born of blood... and destined to die that way.

And certainly this was the woman who had saved her from the nothingness...

Shayla's eyes snapped open, and the dream ceased...

Or did it? Was it a dream at all?

Shayla looked into her intermost memories, and found the image of the two girls together again, just as she had seen it in the dream...

This woman, the woman who had rescued her was, according to this memory, her sister...

But then, what of her other memories? Jeroc, Cella, Logan, Erik and...her brother Shawn?

What was reality, and what was an illusion? Why couldn't she place the true memories from the ones that couldn't be?

She was at the point of crying hysterically, frustrated with struggling to know herself.

And then something snapped.

Stop it. Stop it right now, Shayla Stargazer. The true memories matter not. What matters now is that you are here, and that this woman, whether she is your true sister or not, has helped you and provided you safety. Push the images, the real ones and the illusions, away to the back of your mind for now.

When the time comes...the Truth will be made known...

Yes-ss-sss...

But as seconds lengthened into minutes and his returning gaze never wavered, I knew there was no hope that he would change his mind. Whatever or whoever his loyalties were directed toward- Actar, no doubt -was too strong, too overpowering to allow even the idea of his helping me to freedom to but flutter once in his mind.

I sighed, shivering with the sharply increasing panic that was welling up steadily within me.

Galen, ol' girl, it's up to you now....

I pursed my lips, fighting to hide my rising tide of discomfort. And before I knew what I was doing, I was operating on sheer instinct.

"Um- ," I began a bit hurriedly. "Look, I'd just love to sit and yakk all night... "

Hah...

"...but it really is kinda late, and I'm really kinda tired. Long day, too much to assimilate all at once, that kind of thing, you understand..."

I babbled inanely on even as I moved forward and came in contact with him, gently reaching out and grasping his arm. As smoothly as I could, I continued moving toward the door, still rambling, keeping my grip on his arm soft but firm. He turned with my insistent guidance, and soon was in the doorway.

"Thanks so much for coming," I finally blurted out, practically shoving him out the door now that we had reached it. The surprised Admiral suddenly found himself in the hallway, with my door shutting behind him as I gave it a shove.

"We'll have to do this again sometime," I finished to the greel wood door as I locked it. Then I whirled, strode over to the sliders, stepped out onto the balcony.

The early morning lights of Bim Renna lay before me like a glittering beacon, beckoning.

Somehow, some way, I'm gonna get outta here...

And the sooner, the better.

Great for anyone with a yen for photography. Not so great for me.

I pulled back, finishing my scrutiny. No way was I going to get out of here by going down. Just as I knew there was no way I could ever slip past the guard outside my door.

But....

I leaned out over the balcony again, the early morning breeze whiffling my short hair into a mantigrue's-nest as I turned my face and my gaze...

Upward.

Hope flared, a rushing tide of warmth.

I was a mere couple stories from the roof of this building. If luck continued to hold, there would be other doorways upon that roof or that of its neighbors'; there generally were, if only for emergency and systemic repair purposes.

Now I studied the very walls of the structure with a different eye. The eye of the daughter of an archeologist, one used to dealing with rock of all sorts, and one belonging to someone both experienced in such things and desperate to boot. While being overall smooth in texture, the building wasn't the newest thing to come down the pike, and various fissures and lumps presented themselves here and there upon its surface.

This wasn't gonna be easy... but then, it seemed my life had quit being that quite some time ago.

I blinked my thoughts away from the direction in which they threatened to venture, and into the total concentration I knew I would need. With the sparest of movements, I returned to my suite, dug about in the closet again, and soon found what I was searching for. I exchanged the Kaladorian dress I was still wearing for a simple jumpsuit; the nerf-sandals for friction-soled slippers.

Thank Khaandon someone was thoughtful enough to place them there, no doubt to prevent the build-up of static electricity as the room's occupant shuffled about on this rather luxurious carpet....

I then turned to the balcony. All my mental processes, all my determination, everything within me was focused on that little rectangle of steadily rising light. I went back out, turned around, studied the wall stretching upward into freedom...

...and reached out. Found a handhold, looked about. There. Another minuscule bit of building material, partially eroded to stick out from the rest of the wall. I placed my hand upon it, grasped it with the very tips of my fingers.

It held.

Now my toes sought purchase, scrabbling, feeling, digging into the sides of the building, the highly vulcanized bottoms of the slippers coming into play to help me somewhat "adhere" to the cracks and crannies which crazed the the wall. Like the spider from whose silk my dress was spun, I began my climb, creeping along, lost in total concentration, not looking down, neither looking up, just focusing on the few square inches of stone which lay in my direct line of vision, lost in a moment which seemed an eternity, yet felt conversely to be but a mere fleeting second of time....

Quite suddenly, my grasping hand encountered thin air. I blinked out of the utter focus I had encased myself in, to find it waving above the lip of the roof. A great wash of relief and hope buoyed me over the edge, and I found myself upright, exhilarated.

I had done it. The first step was complete. But now the most difficult path lay before me; I had to find passage off-planet.

Somehow, some way....

I walked to the edge of the building, and in one easy leap traversed the distance to it's neighbor. Thank Khaandon they were all of the same height; must be some kind of Impy building code or something. Bent over like a hunting noghri, keeping to shadows, I moved from building to building, varying my course from a straight line so as to make tracking all the more difficult.

At length I decided I was far enough away from my erstwhile prison, and stopped. There before me stood a maintenance doorway. It beckoned like the saving grace it was.

I hurried to it, and lo and behold, it was not locked. Yanking the door open, I entered the small stairway, and fairly flew down them. Soon I exited the building altogether, and found myself upon a little side alley of sorts. Partially obscured by the canyon-like walls of the surrounding buildings, the fading stars beckoned.

I'm coming... I promised them. Then I hurried out into the streets of Bim Renna, and proceeded to lose myself among them.

It was, rather, twin arrows of mingled fear and desperation which had captured her attention, one emanating from her prey, the other...

My sister.

Closing her eyes, the Glyph on her forehead flaring its steady heat, Graysith concentrated, following the mental link she kept so firmly implaced within the mind and soul of Shayla, traversing it easily and at it's terminus reading with equal ease the cause of the panic and fear she had sensed.

She smiled slightly, sending a corresponding arrow of warmth and steadying calm into the young padawan's conscious thought, and unconscious mind.

Be at ease, my sister, she purred silkenly. There is much confusion within you, much fear and pain that I can sense. Be not led astray by the seeming strength of these false images which plague you so.

For I am the True Strength which can offer you succor and easement of pain. I am your sister, blood of your blood, who truly does care, and the One who desires nothing but that you reach...

The questing tendril suddenly came upon a kernel composed of two mere little words, yet words buried deeply within Shayla's very essence and guarded with a fierce and loyal jealousy. The Chosen Daughter smiled even more broadly, reached out, and assimilated the words with almost offhand ease.

...your TRUE POTENTIAL...

Fear not, my young one. I shall soon return to you, that we may leave this place. Calm your fears; all will soon be revealed to you.

Her message delivered, the Chosen Daughter of the Sith now opened her eyes, their violet hue now darkening with bloodlust, the Glyph flaring out in hateful radiance. In thus a manner, she turned her attention to her prey, which surprisingly, she found to be on the move.

Taken a bit aback by the resourcefulness displayed by Galen, she hesitated. She had planned to hold discourse with Actar, and thus win him over to releasing her paternal sister into her eager hands. But even her powers were no match to that of moving Time; as close to the cemented Now that the seeming-converging lines of essence had been, she now realized that Galen had eluded the Admiral.

Truly in constant motion was the future, be it eons or mere seconds distant.

Graysith gritted her teeth in rising anger. So be it. Her plans once again needed alteration. Drawing her cloak more tightly about her, and in one smooth motion removing S'slan's Tooth from it's sheath, she turned away from the Imperial Headquarters ahead of her, and set off in a new direction.

This little womp-rat would not elude her again.

Terrin had had enough of playing by the Moff's rules. The Moff would be angry enough with him anyway since Actar had blown him off.

I'm getting the hell off this rock, Terrin thought to himself.

Still seething over being pushed out of Actar's room, Terrin stormed to his quarters, packed his few belongings, and changed out of his uniform into pilot garb. After slinging the backpack with his other things in it over his right shoulder, he keyed a code into his wristcomm and said, "Stanza, this is Danner, you read me?"

"Yes, Captain. What is it?" a deep male voice inquired.

"Where is fleet?" Terrin asked him.

"We aren't too far from Ambria, just about 3 lightyears."

"Good. Send the coordinates to my personal shuttle frequency. My work here is finished. We're never getting paid, so I'm getting out."

"Yes sir. we will be expecting your arrival, Captain," Stanza commented.

"See you shortly. Danner out."

With that, Terrin pressed one last key on his wristcomm, closing the link. Maybe the Moff would trace him. He didn't care. His fleet had enough fire-power to bust out of the place.

Taking one last look at the luxurious quarters, Terrin hurried out of the Imperial base, and headed for the streets. He'd have to forge his way out of Ambria without clearance, but this wouldn't be the first time.

Still in a cloud of thought and fuming over what his next step would be, he turned the corner of the street leading to the docking bay where his personal shuttle awaited him. He was so focused on the task at hand that he missed her...a wanderer like himself, heading in the opposite direction.

Terrin rounded the corner at a mad pace, and gave the woman no time to react. Before she could move right or left, he slammed into her, and they both went backwards and fell to the ground.

"Oww!" Terrin growled as he hit the ground. He was about to add explecitives when he got a good luck at her.

She had short red hair, and intense brown eyes that looked right through him. She was beautiful.

Terrin decided the first approach of snapping at her for not watching where she was going was a bad one for making a good first impression. Instead, he stood back up, straightened his backpack, then offered her his right hand.

"Name's Captain Terrin Danner" he said, smiling at her. She accepted his offered hand, and he pulled her up. "Sorry to run into you like this, my mind is too set on getting off this god-forsaken planet to see anyone coming," he explained. "Of course, you might not think the place is god-forsaken at all," he added, making sure to cover all his bases. At least he still seemed to have her attention.

The thought froze atop the myriad others that had rushed through my head during my abrupt collision with this new stranger. Thoughts and emotions ranging from utter fear to heightened rage.

I settled on confusion laced with a good quantity of trepidation, and iced with a bit of wariness. And who in Hell's Seven Circles are you? I thought, as this tall--ok, kinda good looking, too-- guy hauled me to my feet after so unceremoniously dumping me from them.

I stared at him for a moment, assessing him. Blond hair of medium cut, tall and lanky, a free-flowing kind of ease in his movements which somehow indicated he was not the Impy I had first thought him to be. They were always so... stiff. As if they were afraid to walk anywhere on their own device.

But this guy...

I cocked my head to the side, my initial fear leaving me in a rush, then jumped a little as I realized my hand was still in his. I smiled a brief flash of a smile, unobtrusively withdrawing my hand as I searched into his blue eyes, still assessing.

Dammitall, why in the name of Khaandon did he have to have blue eyes...?

With a little jerk, I dropped my eyes from his, took in his well-worn pilot's suit, the carryall slung upon his shoulder with a casual ease which indicated it was quite at home there, as at home as was the aforementioned flightsuit on him.

Captain...? the word wormed into my initial trepidation, provoking a little niggle of hope to raise its head and peep about. My smile broadened.

I decided to chance it... especially after noting how he was looking at me. I'd seen that Look before....

My smile broadened to a genuine one. "No problem, I should have watched where I was going.

"But... you're not the only one in a hurry to get off this rock." I flashed him a sincere look. "I wasn't paying any attention, either."

The Look in his eyes deepened with intrigue. Good, Galen ol' girl, you've still got it! I took a deep breath.

In for a credit, I always have said.

"Unfortunately, I don't seem to have passage of any sort, and I'm really, um... kinda anxious to get away from here.

"My name's Galen. I don't suppose you have room for me aboard your ship?"

Well, I usually don't take passengers, but something tells me to go with this one. She'll be in for a rough exit from Ambria though...

And direct honesty usually isn't my style, but in this case I think it's what needs to be said.

"Well, as I said I'm in a hurry. I've got a Moff mad at me and I'm looking for a missing...friend of mine," Terrin started. She looked down, probably disappointed with the sound of where this line was going. "But, if you are willing to put up with what will probably be a rough exit off the planet and a ride with a bunch of smugglers, then I might be able to help you out, provided you have something that you can offer me for my services, of course."

She cocked her head, seeming to consider this. But Terrin knew he couldn't wait forever. If the Moff had his quarters wired, he might already have a search team out.

Fear leads to anger...

Who said that, she couldn't recall. Or rather, she could recall, but wasn't sure what she was recalling was correct. Alot of things seemed to be going that way.

Feeling frustrated, Shayla sat on the floor with her legs crossed and hands on her knees, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. This was a Jedi calming technique she had been taught on Yavin IV, and she hoped it would do the trick.

At least she thought she'd been taught the technique on Yavin IV.

As Shayla cleared her mind, pushing all the conflicting images out of her short term memory processes and relaxing, something else came to her attention.

A little girl, crying out.

"Shayla!" the little one screamed. "Help me! I can't get out of here and no one else knows where I am! Help!"

Shayla was feeling tense, but she managed to keep calm. She had to reach out and touch the soul of this young child in the distance. She was scared, and Shayla ached for her.

As Shayla reached out her hand in her mind's eye to the child...rather, the little girl, something else became clear.

She knew the girl.

"Thea, I'm here," Shayla answered the little girl. "Do not be afraid." Suddenly, Shayla felt a need to comfort Thea further and take care of her. She didn't know how she and Thea were linked, but what she did know was that Thea seemed to be the only one from the Praxeum that she could sense at all. "I'll make sure that you are safe," Shayla told the little one.

Then, suddenly, without any warning, the connection between Shayla and Thea snapped. And Shayla was almost positive she heard the little girl scream as the connection between them was severed.

"Nooo!" Shayla cried out loud, anger welling up within her. But Thea was gone, at least for now. Shayla would keep her mind on the girl, and make sure she was there if Thea established contact again.

But for now, Shayla was feeling very hungry, and she realized she had not eaten for a long time.

Now's the time to try that door, I suppose.

Shayla stood up and stretched, not realizing she had been on the floor so long. Then, she wandered over to the closet, put on some ankle-boots, and walked over to the door.

She tried the handle. To her surprise, it turned and the door opened.

But Shayla knew she wasn't alone.

The creature, whatever it was, still guarded the shuttle, although Shayla was certain the woman had left the ship for some reason. At least leaving her creature behind meant she would be back.

And surely she will not protest to my getting something to eat.

With the presence of the creature in mind, Shayla stepped out of her room, closed the door, and wandered down the hallway of the shuttle in search of a dining area.

Strike a deal... something in exchange... a Moff after this guy... rough exit?!?

All the factors added up to the same equivalency: he was probably going to be my best... if not only means of getting off this godforsaken hole-in-the-wall. With a Moff after him, at least it sounded like he bore no special love for the Empire. And I was getting mighty tired of it as well.

But how I could get him to take me to the Jedi Praxeum was yet another unresolved question. Maybe an unresolvable one at that.

The important thing, though, was that there were no alarm bells going off in my gut, no niggling hunches trying to persuade me to hotfoot it away from him with all due haste.

Haste did have to be made, however.

I turned my head back to him and looked him square in the eye. I flashed him the biggest smile-ala-Sorben that I could.

Gleaming teeth and all.

"I can, um... see that you're in a bit of a hurry," I began, doing my utmost to remain calm and smoothly detached. "Matter of fact, to repeat, so am I..."

No need to tell him about what was hot on my own tail... at least, not yet....

"...and I'm not only in a hurry, but I could get out of it quicker 'n nergon 14 can explode! Er, that is, under normal circumstances."

I paused for a breath, giving this attractive smoothie a final once-over, digging deep within myself for any tiny warning niggle I might have overlooked.

Nothing.

I drew in a big breath, went for broke.

If he has heard anything, and put two and two together, assuming there was a two and two TO put together as yet, then by this one disclosure I could be digging my own grave. But I had to risk it.

"I'm a pilot, and a damned good one at that," I said rather bluntly, hoping he would dismiss the fact that, dressed in the jumpsuit and slippers that I was, I probably looked more capable of cooking his dinner than flying his ship. I cocked my head a little to the side, scrutinizing his flightsuit once more. Being a captain meant that he had crew beneath him; while some captains were known to fly their own ships, he looked too... self-assured to be bothered with that. "Unfortunately though, one who has been removed from her ship.

"Perhaps you could make use of my... services, in this regard?" I finished smoothly, putting a touch of silk in my own voice.

My brown eyes bored into his damnable blue ones as I waited for his response, fighting down a sudden sense of unease which I knew from the bottom of my being did NOT emanate from him....

And well, buddy, you are going to be in a bind real soon.

These are the times he missed Shayla. She had always been a wonderful pilot, and loved flying his personal shuttle The Eagle about as much as her own Starlight.

Damn you Shayla Stargazer, you'd have really come in handy for me in a pinch if you hadn't been too danged dedicatated to your moral obligations to do the things I wanted, Terrin thought sulkily.

He pushed the thought back in his mind. Now was not the time, and Shayla would get hers soon enough.

"Allright, Galen," Terrin finally said, realizing that he'd been standing there daydreaming for at least a minute, "If you can help me get off this rock like you imply you can, you've found yourself a ride. Follow me, my shuttle The Eagle is just right down the street. We'll be out of here in no time.

Or at least I HOPE we'll be out of here in no time, Terrin added mentally.

Keep impressing the hell out of him, heh. The little thought warbled devilishly in the back of my head, as I stuck out my hand in agreement. Something told me that I had gotten on his good side, and would remain there, only by keeping him impressed.

And I sure as Roon's Treasure didn't want to impress him with what was after me... something I knew was at the bottom of that building sense of unease I was feeling.

"Great!" I exclaimed brightly, trying to beat down both inner demons in one fell swoop. "Um... I'm ready now. Lead on, and the gods of spacetime be with us!"

Especially time, I muttered under my breath as he gave me a final and rather disarming look. Then he turned and began heading off, his expression full of an unspoken determination and a purposeful stride to his step.

I hurried to keep up with him. He was tall; I was short. Someone else do the math; I was forced to maintain an almost jog-trot as we moved rapidly through the steadily brightening early morning light. But I didn't utter one sneering comment or complaint; I knew very well that this sudden Red Carpet he offerred could quite easily be yanked from under my feet at any given moment.

Soon we came upon our destination: a personal vessel docking bay. It looked absolutely huge, spreading out quite suddenly from the almost claustrophobic canyons of streets and buildings we had exited, and sprawling out over what looked to be several square kilometers. Somewhat sandwiched between the streets of Bim Renna below, and the larger floating landing platforms which received official issue shuttles and other more military and governmental craft, it was filled with ships of all sizes and makes...

...and swarmed entirely way too much with those blasted men in their little white armor.

I paused briefly, my eyes cutting to my sudden savior. He totally ignored me as if I wasn't even there. In fact, he didn't even stop. He just kept up that even, steady stride, making a bee-line to a magnificent little Lambda-class shuttle sitting off to one side, trying to be unobtrusive.

It failed miserably.

Wow! Now it was my turn to be impressed. He flew a Lamby? Whatever did I do to warrant this stroke of luck? Those things could be fa-aa-ast...! Back in the days of the Rebellion they were always being stolen by one faction or another, and even now they were hard pressed to be topped for their perfect union of modifiable speed, defensive measures, and comfortable apportionments.

I cleared my throat to mention... something, anything, but stopped before the words could escape me. A sly grin coming to my own lips, I resumed my dogtrot, and soon was by his side.

I knew what he was doing. In looking to be so in control of the situation, he very well could make those Impys think that he was.

My eyes cut up to the hard plane of his cheek, and I smiled a little smile. I bet he's a helluva sabaac player, too....

Striving to maintain a look that said, "Yes, we really DO belong here; no, no one after us, nosirree, what would make you ask that?" I moved quickly and quietly beside him, trying to make use of his height in hiding myself. And Khaandon must have been with us, for we made it to the ship totally unmolested, even by the one Impy who actually waved an arm in our direction.

Terrin had merely smiled and waved in return, and we continued on, the Impy going about whatever docking bay business it was that took up his time and loyalties. Luckily it wasn't checking for clearance papers.

I almost stopped in my tracks at that, but kept moving. He probably has clearance anyway, nothing to worry about Galen ol' girl, I tried to calm that worry away. I mean, so what that a Moff was after him; it didn't necessarily mean that that particular Moff was on this particular planet now, did it?

Although I had never seen so many Impys all congregated together in one place before....

I shook that worry aside with the realization that Capt. Danner had come to a halt, and was speaking to me.

Directly before me, the opened hatch to his shuttle yawned invitingly.

I gave him one final, approving nod, and strode aboard. Terrin followed hot on my heels, and behind us, the hatch closed with a particular kind of finality.

And about that time his wrist comm went buzzing.

"Damn!" he muttered.

Galen, who had turned to go into the cabin, half-turned and looked at him suspiciously.

Oh well, she'll know sooner or later. And I'll bet a large amount of credits this is the Moff.

"Do me a favor," Terrin told her. "Get the ship warmed up. I'll be right there."

Galen shot him another one of those damned suspicious looks at him, but nodded and headed off to the cabin.

Now, back to the wrist comm.

He pressed the accept button. "Terrin Danner, who is this?"

"Danner, if you don't get back here immediately, I'll blow the roof off your shuttle to get to you. What do you think you are doing!?" the Moff questioned, his voice booming even over the comm channel.

"I'm on a lead to find Shayla. I had no time to discuss-"

"Right!" the Moff sputtered, cutting him off. "Your shuttle will be detained, and your clearance is being revoked. You blew our connection with Admiral Actar, didn't you?" the Moff accused. "Until this is straightened out and we find Shayla, you will be staying on Ambria unless I say you can leave, got it?"

Why did I ever get tangled with this stupid idiot?!

"Like hell I'm staying on planet," Terrin growled. With that, he switched off the comm and headed for the cabin. He rushed in, and plopped into the copilot's chair.

"Looks like I get to give your awesome piloting skills a good once-over. And I hope you weren't kidding me about them, because I've known some impressive pilots. That and plus if you've lied we just might both be dead. Moffs have a thing with trying to get their way at any cost."

She looked over at him from the controls, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Clearance or no clearance, we're getting off this planet. Show me what you got, Galen."

Deeply hidden in the Elseness which existed between the very passage of Time itself, her ship remained hidden. Hidden as well was her erstwhile prey and soon-to-be sister. That Shayla would join her, body and mind and soul, was a certainty; it was merely a matter of which pathway she, the Chosen Daughter of the Sith, would decide upon placing before her in her travels to that glorious state.

So part of her remained linked to Shayla's mind, and in thus a manner, to the young child she now recognized through the padawan as "Thea." As she tracked Galen's Force-scent, a great portion of her being was busy examining this new child, and it's importance to the one she would have join her.

There came an uncomfortable cry; with little effort, she severed all links between Shayla and Thea, and continued on, pondering what had just happened.

This Young One meant much to her sister-to-be. Young and vulnerable it was; no threat... yet. And yet, further examination was necessary.

She filed that small incident away for future use, turning her thoughts now to another essence she sensed. One which had briefly flickered close, oh so very close...

...but one which now was trying to hide, some lightyears distant.

Ahh... this one again, the One after her sister-to-be, with the young man, so arrogant, so cocky...

Her eyes blackened with sadistic pleasure as, her lips curling into a near-snarl, she reached easily out across the icy reaches of spacetime, and found Yaoksi Joao's mind, breached it as easily as one would slice into an over-ripe t'plykk fruit.

She laughed in pure delight, the musical sound ringing off the stone walls and duracrete pavement which surrounded her. How easily was he manipulated; how small a threat the Other with him, rushing to assist and protect him from himself...

Her laugh lessened slightly. No. Rather... to protect him from Her....

Her eyes slitted. Ahh-hhh... here was Challenge, something she had not confronted since the days of Malice and Gravin Dark. Yes, and even her own Dark Heart, Lord Wicked.

She smiled, as something dark and very, very assured rose to the forefront of her essence, reaching outward, upward...

...but suddenly jerked back with a vicious yank. One with such strength as to actually make her whirl about in surprised anger.

In her playful musings and meddlings with the minds and emotions of these other pitiful beings, she had committed a Great Sin. She had let her focus almost completely slip.

And somewhere in that slippage, that accursed Galen was busily occupied in evading her yet again.

For a long moment she stood in silent anger, all tendrils of her black essence now safely ensconced for the moment within her even blacker being, as she considered her next move.

Soon it would be daylight. She knew precisely where Galen was, and how she was planning to escape... as well as who she was escaping with.

Graysith's eyes became as pools of pure obsidian, a strangely fearful violet glow shimmering in their depths. She had once brushed against this other being's essence as well, and now easily called forth the name he associated himself with.

Terrin Danner.

She jerked back to the reality of the moment, glancing toward the horizon which was trapped in the chromatic throes of sunrise. Soon there would be many people about. Stealth, her greatest ally at the moment, would flee before the rays of Ambria's stellar.

It was not that she could not still remain hidden, even in their midst. It was just that after all the mind games and soul slicing she had occupied herself with, she now found that remaining invisible suddenly took too much...

...Energy. Energy which now needed to be put toward a triumvirate use.

Galen and Terrin. Shayla/Thea. And now Cella and Yaoksi.

A soft little sound interrupted her thoughts, and she whirled, overly angered to be thus interrupted. She froze into a grim statue at the almost improbable sight which toddled into her view.

There, coming from a doorway to the building she was standing beside, came a young child, perhaps three years old. One hand clutched a ragged strip of covering; the other was busy wiping sleep from its heavy eyes.

That it was sleep-walking was only too obvious.

The Chosen Daughter of the Sith smiled a grim smile to herself, her eyes now beyond black, escalating to that totality displayed in the depths of some hideous cavern.

She reached out for the child, murmuring soft little noises to allay any fears it might experience upon awakening unexpectedly away from its bed. Her pale hand came in contact with its tousled head, and ran coolly about it in a mockery of a caress.

A vision of a small and equally vulnerable marsupial swam before her eyes... one she had once devoured alive before the coolly approving gaze of Darth Wicked, seeming a lifetime ago....

Moments later the stone wall of the building was awash with violet incandescence as, partially renewed and refreshed, the Chosen Daughter of the Sith straightened from this small diversion. Her eyes glittered with new determination.

She shot one small glance upward, sent one last niggle of ice into the mind of a smuggler, and the heart of yet another child.

Then waving her hand in a casual manner, she reopened the Gateway, and with studied grace and aplomb stepped through it and into her ship once again. There she proceeded directly to her quarters, and secreted herself therein, to rest and to plan what strategies she would next employ.

It had only taken a matter of moments for me to familiarize myself with the pilot's console, and to get the little ship's systems up and running. I studied the dials and buttons as Terrin hung back a bit behind me, speaking with someone on his wristcomm.

Pitch, yaw, trim controls there... navigational comp input here... impulse thruster control over there... terrestrial altimeter and airspeed tucked over there... foil elevators and shield instigators and blaster arming levers...hyperdrive ignition mechanism....

I pulled myself back to reality as Terrin thumped into the copilot's seat next to me. He graced me with that disarming smile of his, although to be truthful, it did look to be a tad bit on the strained side.

"Show me what you've got, Galen."

I flashed him a grin in turn, arched a brow at him. "I don't suppose you have the clearance codes to depart this rock?" I asked briefly, not really expecting an affirmative at this point.

He merely cocked a brow in turn, giving me all the answer I needed. Clearance codes provided one with departure vector coordinates; without them I would be basically flying blindly into quite possibly very heavy air traffic.

My cheeks puffed out as I blew out the breath I had been unconsciously holding. Suddenly my entire stay on this little rock, all the confusion and trepidation, and yes, fear, had coalesced into this one little moment.

I was really gonna get off Ambria, but in a cowboyish blast for freedom, and probably with pursuers on my tail.

I gripped the main directional controls fiercely. So be it. If we had to blast outta here, then blast outta here we would.

I then shoved all emotion from me, and became one with the Eagle. I needed every bit of focus I possessed if I was to get us away from this dustball. I had formerly planned on a primarily instrumental departure, blast shields lowered against the possibility that Actar had discovered my presence here, and would send annoying Impys firing upon us.

But now, without any clearance coordinates, I didn't dare fly blind. I had to keep the blast shields raised, as I had to fly out of here by line of sight.

I gripped the "joystick" more firmly. "You wanna see what I've got?" I muttered beneath my breath. "Ok, glad to oblige.

"Here we go...."

With a suddenness that was surprisingly easy, I lifted the Eagle from her docking pad. The graceful shuttle rose a few meters, and hovered briefly while I ran several options through my head.

In that few moments I could see little white forms running toward us, their arms either waving about frantically, or...

...or steadying in our direction as though pointing something at us.

"Sheesh!" the word exploded from my lips when the ship rocked with a blaster bolt. Thank Khaandon that one merely resulted in a bit of harmless carbon-scoring on the hull; we might not be so lucky the next time.

Terrin shot me a somewhat unnerved look, but bless his heart he kept quiet. I felt a brief flash of pain for him... His beautiful ship....

I frowned with determination. Then, my hands cool and steady and very, very rapid, I gave myself over completely to the shuttle, becoming one with her controls, thinking her thoughts, and almost quite suddenly actually seeing the immediate future laid out for her.

I aimed for it.

The shuttle rose gracefully a few more meters, then suddenly whirled about its x-axis. It yawed upward at a near-stalling angle, and suddenly shot out from the docking bay like a pod-racer from its starting line.

From stop to half-impulse in two seconds. Not bad... and wonderful inertial compensator she possessed as well....

Begging to stretch her wings and fly now, the Eagle strained ahead, zipping along beneath the non-commercial landing platform above us, hugging into it like a child to its mother. I peered out the forward view, gaining brief impressions of startled faces as we zipped along the underside of that monstrosity, judging nanosecond by nanosecond our proximity to the uncountable tons of durasteel and permacrete which hung over our heads.

But skimming this closely was the only thing that prevented ground units from firing upon us. They didn't dare hit the repulsor units that kept the thing afloat; instead, the police units who were so suddenly scrambling to give pursuit had to man their own vessels, warm them up, get vector coordinates of their own...

That gave us a precious 5 to 8 seconds, I figured. Seconds I planned to be put to the best use I could put them.

Suddenly I saw it. The edge of the landing platform directly ahead of us, coming at us with all the inexorable promise of an old Imperial Super Star Destroyer descending on some hapless rebel. And in less time than it took to tell about it, we were in open air.

Completely vulnerable. But truly free now to maneuver as well.

"Hold on to whatever it is that's most important to you!"

The words burst almost unthinkingly from my lips as, my hands descending and playing upon the console with a speed I forgot I possessed, I made our bid for freedom. Terrin twisted in his seat to stare at the screen which received data from the rear port. A small swarm of fighters were rising in the distance, buzzing like angry gorflue gnats.

"Uh, Galen..." he began warningly. Then seeing my complete and utter focus, he fell silent, and did the only thing he could do at the time. He waited.

Grim determination filled me, and I gave the controls a vicious shove. The shuttle responded immediately, pitching to the side in one barrel-roll after another while her nose aimed heavenward at a near 65-degree angle, zipping about a small freighter which suddenly appeared in our line of flight. I gave the "joystick" another push; the Eagle now roller-coastered downward, still pitching, and now yawing a bit as I threw that directional command into the fray.

Now streaks of pursuing laser blasts flashed about us but swung wide as the Eagle gracefully eluded them, and with almost offhanded ease at last left the slower police shuttles far behind us.

Exhilaration filled me. "WHAHOOO," I threw back my head and hollered with pure joy. "Are we having fun yet or what?" I had forgotten the sheer joy of a responsive ship and its accompanying adrenalin rush. To say it was heady was a complete understatement.

Beside me, clutching the copilot's seat a bit, Terrin looked a little green about the gills....

Now our receiver was beginning to babble. "Eagle, this is BR Control. You are in an unauthorized flight vector; come to all-stop and return to ground. Repeat, Eagle, this is BR Control...."

"Oh, shut up," I muttered, risking the removal of one hand from the controls to snap off the receiver altogether. Chattering box that it was, it wouldn't do us any good now anyway....

A sudden blast rocked us as a wave of compressed air struck our bow. I grasped the controls with both hands again, my eyes roving about to see what in the name of Khaandon that had been.

There, off to the side. An old Imperial infiltrator was sneaking in from about 98-degrees. It had just fired across our bow in the one warning we would probably ever receive.

At least somebody wanted us alive, and not dead.

I pushed that thought away, and shoved the controls to full-throttle. The Eagle leapt ahead, still pitching and rolling, the invisible curley-cues of her own air-trail vortices reaching out and knocking this new threat quite literally from the skies.

Quite suddenly, I noticed the atmosphere ahead of us was beginning to darken. Bit by bit it was filling with stars. I allowed myself a brief smile; we had to be passing through Ambria's ionosphere. At least the solar activity there would play havoc with any laser blasts which might be directed at us.

Another precious second, maybe two....

I didn't wait about to count 'em. I was scarcely out of the envelope of the main part of the Ambrian atmosphere when I slapped two controls. The Eagle gave a responding little murmur of delight, her foils lowering to their distinctive triangular orientation as she prepared herself for true flight.

Then the brightening stars about us lengthened to streaks of ice as, daringly, in a maneuver I implemented closer to any planetary body than I had ever done before, she leapt out from the bonds of gravity and of spacetime itself, and hypered away to freedom.

Get a grip on it, man. She did get us out of Ambria after all.

After making sure they were safely in hyperspace, she looked over at him, the thrill of piloting shining from the smile on her face. The smile faded to more of a concerned look as she arched an eyebrow at him. "Terrin?"

It was then he realized he was still clutching to the sides of the copilot's chair for dear life. His stomach had finally stopped spinning and had settled somewhere in his toes, and he hoped he didn't look as green as he felt.

He looked over at her, tried a not-very-convincing smile, and opened his mouth to thank her for the escape...only to discover that it only came out in a little squeak. "Thanks," he managed, feeling nauseous.

He wanted to add that he hadn't seen someone with her talent in a long time, and that was true. Only Shayla Stargazer could fly a shuttle like that, and he'd not seen her equal until now.

But regardless of what he wanted to tell her, it wasn't going to happen, not right now.

He was feeling humiliated already...he'd forgotten how he hated narrow escapes....but he was going to be even more humiliated if he hurled here and now, on the control panel.

"Be...back..." he managed, in a near whisper.

I gave the console a final glance; all was quiet on the hyper-front. Not that we could tell if there was anything out there after us, but I really doubted our pursuers could plot any possible directional vectors at all. With all the pitching and rolling and yawing I had utilized to get us off Ambria, we could literally had hypered off anywhere within the area of a three-dimensional sphere.

Which, basically, encompassed the entire galaxy in one shot.

I then settled back in the pilot's seat, letting the adrenalin seep from me. The cabin bleeped and ticked quietly around me as the Eagle murmered her own little comments as to where we were going.

I really hadn't given it much thought. I just had plotted the handiest escape route I could, and had quite simply gotten us outta there. I really didn't know where we would end up; all I knew was that this far in the Outer Rim I hadn't had to worry much about any threatening stars getting in our immediate way.

Hmmm... maybe I ought to bring us out of hyperdrive pretty soon, just to check our position....

I reached for the console again, and paused. Our position? Like I was going somewhere with this guy?

I sat back as this hit me. Now that the immediate concern of escaping Ambria was over, I realized I had no afterplan. No idea what was going to happen, what would happen to me, where I was going to go. I had formerly entertained a vague idea of entreating Terrin in returning me to Yavin 4 and the Jedi Praxeum, but suddenly realized that this might not be in my best interests.

Actar had found me there once. He could certainly find me there a second time.

I sniffed, pondering. The thought of maybe aligning myself with this guy for a bit rose enticingly before my eyes. He did have a nice little ship with hyperdrive capabilities, after all, and that was something very useful to have.

Worth it's weight in gold, even.

I decided to wait, to let him take the comm regarding my next move. I closed my eyes, and settled back into the pilot's chair, my ears focused on the quiet sounds of the ship, and the tad bit louder, and very explicit, ones wafting from the aft.

I smiled, sensing his return to the cabin, feeling the rustle of material as he regained the seat next to me.

I beat him to the punch.

"Sorry about the 'ding,'" I opened with, following that with, "but better 'ding' than death."

I paused a little, then sat up, opening my eyes as I faced him, finding those blue ones of his peering directly into my own.

I gulped a little, then firmed.

"So, where do we go from here, Captain Danner?"

He could sense it, Graysith landed. He had to get to Galen before she did. He hoped Swatzi wasn't confronted with Graysith, he would surely be killed, especially if trying to protect Galen.

He ran through the corridors. H thought breifly of stopping at the Command Center and putting the building on High Alert, troopers in every hallway, but decided against it, he needed to get there asap. He got to elevators and nabbed one before anyone else was able to get on. HE put his hand on the panel and, with the force, accelerated the elevator. As soon as it opened he ran out, but standing there was Admiral Swatzi, he ran right into to him. He grabbed Swatzi's shoulders and said, "Is she alright?!"

Admiral Swatzi was a little taken away by it and managed to mutter, "Who?"

"Galen. Her sister is coming, right now." He took off to Galen's suite. He sensed something wasn't right when he was outside the door. He slowly opened it, to find.....nothing. It was silent. Few lights were on, the doors to the balcony open, allowing the breeze to come in, blowing the drapes that hung from above the doors. He looked around....she was gone...

He fell to his knees, and crouched down. Where was she. Well, she wasn't with Graysith that's definately a good thing. Admiral Swatzi walked into the room, and interupted his mild meditation with, "I put the building on high alert, I'll send troops out to search the city, if you want."

"No, let her go." Admiral Swatzi left the room.

Actar got back onto his feet, went to the door, closed it, locked it, pulled a chair from the table to the center of the room, and sat down. He took out a crystal. The crystal was the only thing he had from his childhood, though, he couldn't remember anything from before the age of 21, but the crystal gave him the strength to go into deep meditatation, without using up a lot of energy. Or, that's what he thought, the strength really came from within...the mind is very powerfull, but can be easly tricked.

I know you are probably looking for passage to somewhere, and you certainly deserve it after getting us out of the place. But truth is I'm looking for someone...very important... and I must find her. I know she's being held prisoner on a shuttle in the area near Ambria, and I've even learned that her captor is probably some sort of Sith. So I'm kinda in a hurry to get to her."

Why are you explaining EVERYTHING to her? Jeez, man, she's got you bewitched.

"So, if you are up for a little adventure, I could use you as part of my crew while you wait. And if not, you are welcome to stay on board my Star Destroyer until we can either transport you elsewhere or you can find a ride with someone else. But I'd really like a pilot like you on my team, your skills are hard to come by. So what do you say?"

You just offered her a job, Terrin buddy, you know she's got you hooked. The last female you offered a job like this was...well...Shayla.

But nevermind that.

He looked over at Galen, who seemed to be pondering his words, searching into her big brown eyes with his deep blue ones and hoping to find a positive answer somewhere within them.

The woman who had saved her from nothingness had returned to the shuttle again at last..the woman who seemed as though she wanted to be Shayla's friend...Shayla's sister even...

Something she'd been trying to keep shoved in the back of her mind was blaring at Shayla loudly even from the distance.

Who put you in the nothingness? How long were you there? What did you see there? And why is Thea trapped in a dream? Was it she...this woman who wants to be your friend...that made this all happen?

Confusion was taking over again, and Shayla knew she needed to fight it now more than ever. Truth would reveal itself in time, it had to. And just maybe if the woman had released her from the nothingness, she would release Thea too. And someone who was willing to release those she enslaved couldn't be all bad...she had to at least have a kernel of goodness within her.

Yes, Shayla thought to herself. Think of only Thea for the moment. Plea for Thea. Go to this woman, she will surely at least listen to you.

Gathering all the strength and courage she could muster, Shayla left the dining area and followed her Force sense to the room of her captor.

And how she wished she knew her captor's name.

At last, she found it, only to realize that the creature was in front of the door. Startled and frightened, Shayla shied away.

Maybe later... she thought.

But later would never come. Without Shayla ever reaching the door or knocking, it whirred open, revealing her captor, who looked somewhat fatigued.

Shayla opened her mouth, hoping the right words would come to her. "I...have a request, if you would please hear me out," Shayla said.

And then she stood, waiting hopefully...

Lessee, now.... In the mere months (ye gods, was it only months?!?!) since my world had turned completely topsy turvy, I had rescued a bounty hunter from the clutches of an evil Sith Lord intent on his demise, had joined forces with said bounty hunter and as a result had been dragged hither and yon across the galaxy, both at the controls of my own little Sith ships-- yes, not one, but two!-- and as passenger in his and others as well.

I had suffered being slammed into force cages, been involved in rescuing the kidnapped wife of the head of the Bounty hunter's guild, had been captured by no less than three evil beings intent on killing me as well. I had been in and out of one Imperial shuttle/brig after another, had actually killed with my own hands, had been nearly killed in turn on more than one occasion, had been present at the destruction of a hidden moon base (heck, the entire moon had gone kablooey!) and had wound up pregnant by the only man I ever thought I would really love.

I had been shot, sliced, ripped and broken, in body and almost completely in mind, by hideous forces commanded by my sister... said sister who, after so casually murdering our father on that dim and benighted little hellhole, had left me there to die alone, while she went off to become some sort of self-proclaimed Sith herself.

And he wanted to know if I was up for adventure???

I blinked back tears bordering on hysteria. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But the thought of sitting out my days alone, Khaandon knows where, waiting to have this baby, then raising it equally alone, appealed to me about as much as rolling in a dewback wallow.

After what I'd been through, I knew with deep certainty that I just could not go back to my former, naive little life. I just couldn't.

I blinked myself back to the awareness that those damnably blue eyes he had were searching deeply into my own as he patiently waited for my answer. I gave a little start; was that actually hope I saw hidden deeply in their depths?

I pushed that thought aside, afraid to examine it too closely at the moment. Then I drew in a deep breath, and once more stuck out my hand.

"I don't think I'd be happy hanging around a SSD..."

Great Khaandon's Ghost; this guy had a fleet, and his own Super Star Destroyer??? Now THAT was impressive!

"...but I don't really have anywhere to be at the moment."

I paused a little, one hand slipping unobtrusively onto my abdomen as I considered the prudency of telling him of my current condition.

I decided it could wait.

"You've got yourself a pilot, and I thank you for asking."

The smile that broke out on his face in response to that brief little sentence rivalled Sorben's for it's brilliancy. White teeth exposed in a quick laugh, he grasped my hand firmly, shook it.

His hand felt surprisingly, unexpectedly good around mine...

I jerked a little, withdrew my hand from his grasp as gently as I could without seeming obvious. The little niggle that crept out of nowhere in response to that touch, one that had the effrontery to warm me inside, surprised me, and confused me as well. Again, I didn't want to examine it too closely. I wasn't ready.

A little desperately, I tried to shift the conversation into a safer territory. I focused in on something he had said. Something that might be more important than he realized.

"Um- " I began a little shakily. "Y-you said this person, this woman who was so important to you, was taken by a Sith.

"Whatta coincidence. I've been kinda mixed up with Sith for nearly a year now, and actually have been hunting for one in particular for that entire time.

"Maybe we can help each other more than we first thought."

I wound down with that, thinking maybe there truly was something to a Force that connected everyone together as it was purported to do... and that maybe sometimes that connection brought beings together in a union predestined by something Other than Fate alone.

"You uh...say you've been tracking a Sith?" he started hesitantly.

Surely this wasn't the same Sith that Shayla was with. If it was, this WAS a small universe...

"In your tracking her, have you encountered her around Yavin IV lately, possibly snatching a Praxeum student?"

Thoughts were spinning in his head, trying to piece together if he and she were looking for the same target, and just a different person.

Maybe he should explain to her that he was after Shayla for matters of business repayal only...

No, not now. Maybe later.

"I think you and I might be headed in the same direction."

Damn it all, Terrin, there you go telling her everything! Why are you so inclined to trust her so since you haven't even really told her why you are after Shayla?

Be honest with yourself man, you are SO falling for her. And the last time you were hooked, you ended up backing out on the girl and hurting her badly. And now you are after the same girl on business.

Universe to Terrin, get a grip.

He flashed Galen a half-smile, but he didn't think it looked too convincing. He did hope that they were on the same path, and that their journey would coincide and they would truly be able to help each other out. And as much as he hated to admit it and wouldn't for a while now, he was really starting to like her.

She's not like the other girls, and I could use a switch. But these things take time and patience.

"So," he asked, realizing he was daydreaming and she was staring curiously at him, "What do you say we switch places here, let me get us on course to my fleet, and you tell me what you know of this Sith while I get us headed in the right direction?"

I shook my head slightly to myself, musing at his choice of words. Wondered if indeed there really was any "right" direction for anyone anywhere, if anyone really had control of their own helm in travelling that path.

Came suddenly to a simple yet very profound conclusion. It just... was.

Flank speed, ol girl, and straight on til morning....

I moved aside and, bowing slightly at the waist, waved Terrin into the pilot's seat. That little flush of warmth pooled about my torso as he gracefully seated himself and reached out to play upon the navigation board.

He reminds me of a Tattooine sandcat. The thought leapt into my mind as I studied him as discreetly as possible. Lean and lithe and very controlled.

Sorben was more like a nek, although not so vicious. Stockily muscular and very much aware of it...

I pulled myself up short in surprise at this comparison. Galen, what in Hell's Seven Circles are you thinking?

Or... feeling....

I shook that thought from me, shying from it like a young ronto. It was leading me along a byway toward something which at the moment I really didn't want to face.

At least not now.

I crossed my arms, and took in a deep breath. On to safer waters....

"Well," the word exploded from my lips rather louder than I intended. I smiled a wan little smile as Terrin jerked his face to me, one brow cocked in question.

Still smiling, I quickly sat down in the copilot's seat and snuggled there, my crossed arms hugging myself, trying to get comfortable. Quickly, I ran the last words he had spoken through my head, settled on a topic much safer than that which was hovering in strange expectation about the corners of my psyche.

I tried again, my voice now under control.

Might as well let him know everything. I mean, if you're gonna be his... pilot, then he certainly deserves to know everything.

Well, practically everything.

And so, in the quiet haven of the Eagle's command cabin, I told him everything. About my sister, Jharmeen-cum-Graysith, and our father, and the Sith ruins, and all my adventure seeking her, and of the times when I had in fact fallen directly into her hands, and therein fought bravely (if perhaps with some naivety) to "change her back." How I had been ignored, brutalized, nearly killed.

Downplaying my relationship with Sorben, and studiously avoiding mention of my pregnancy, I told him of my solo departure from my erstwhile companions, of being captured by some hellcat, rescued by Actar, brought to Ambria.

And more importantly, how I just knew Graysith was still hot on my own trail in retaliatory fury.

I paused for breath, and suddenly found myself at a dearth for words. Quiet, I could only look at Terrin, trying to read the inscrutably blank look he was giving me, wondering if he was thinking about just dropping me off at the nearest base and skedaddling away from me like a womp-rat running from the aforementioned sandcat.

Khaandon, I hope not....

I cleared my throat, and ended my soliloquy with, "So I don't know if she is the Sith you are after who has this...woman you are hunting for. It could very well be; I don't think there are that many of them running around.

"But if she is, I just want you to know this: She's got some awful, terrible power at her command; you're friend is in deep doo-doo, and if you get her hot after you, she won't be shaken from your trail until you're dead."

But for some strange reason, she could not place herself into the meditative state she so desired. The image of another child kept swimming before her violet eyes, segueing like an alternating electrical current into the image of Shayla and back again.

That child had meaning to this one, my chosen sister, she thought to herself, as she finally fought back the last bits of fatigue which still plagued her. She cocked her head to one side, lost in a bit of introspection, considering all the implications of her impending move.

She suddenly straightened, firm and in coolly powerful control once again. It is inconsequential, she finalized to herself. That little one is no threat to me, or to my love, or our designs. We can surely prevail against whatever mewlings she may cry out with. They disturb me not.

But she plagues my sister as I would plague another...

The thought broke off in mid-sentence, crashing head-on upon the durasteel wall of suddenly erected conclusion Graysith had built within.

So be it.

Now she softened, once more aware of the sight Shayla presented, standing bravely yet clearly discomfited and even nearly terrified in her presence. The fact that M'wonBo'o was growling his disapproval at her side did not go very far in soothing Shayla's obvious distress.

Graysith smiled, placed a quieting hand upon the head of her tuk'ata. "In time, he shall come to know you as I wish to, my sister," she purred quietly, her voice black silk.

M'wonBo'o obediently ceased his grumbles, but his pupilless eyes never left those of Shayla, which were growing huger by the minute. With a final little snarl, he settled down to crouch at the feet of his Dark Mistress, ready to leap at any perceived threat against her.

Graysith's smile deepened, yet somehow became even softer in that deepening. The Glyph on her forehead washed the threesome with a radiance equally soft and beckoning, as, moving with a sure and studied grace, the Chosen Daughter reached out to lightly touch Shayla's cheek with one finger.

"I wish only to prove my sincerity to you, Shayla," she murmured, stating the name of the young padawan for the first time, her violet eyes boring steadily into Shayla's. "And in this, your desire is mine."

She blinked, and it was as if somewhere the very fabric of space and time roiled, coiled about itself, seeking new purchase, new pathways, new direction as it drew back from a tiny little corner of the multiplicity of universes which made up existence...

...and returned a little girl to her own.

For a long moment Graysith merely lost herself in Shayla's uncomprehending gaze, waiting until the Force-sense she knew was there would discover the truth of what had actually happened in that brief second.

Shayla's eyes widened further.

Graysith gave her a genuine smile. Then, drawing in a shuddery breath, she gracefully turned and re-entered her quarters. M'wonBo'o rose immediately beside her, turning to plant himself as self-imposed guardian without her door.

Or rather what he should say.

He had a good mind to drop her off at the nearest cantina, but the problem with that was he really did need to find Shayla. Sure, Moff Krenoff was probably angry enough to not pay him a credit for his work if he found her, but something else about the whole thing was eating at Terrin too.

Whether he liked what Shayla had done or not, he didn't think she deserved to be imprisoned by a Sith. Shayla had some impressive Force powers that he'd seen in action, and he'd hate to know how much more powerful those skills might be with a bit of Sith hate behind them.

So he resolved he'd at least help her out of her funk.

And so what if the Sithy would be after him? At least it'd be more interesting than an Imperial Moff chewing on his heel. And besides, Galen did have his interest. And she needed his help. No one had ever needed him before, not even Shayla...with exception of this one incident. And he rather liked the feeling of being needed; it felt, in a word, good.

As for Shayla, regardless of whether he was saving her only to confront her about a little vengeance of his own, at least he'd keep her alive. That was better than what a Sith would do if Shayla resisted being turned, and if Terrin knew Shayla, she would do precisely that.

At last he shook himself from his musings to refocus his eyes on Galen's brown ones. She seemed to be looking through him, worried that he might just abandon her then and there.

You wouldn't be the first one, Sweetheart, he thought to himself. But you just might be the first one that I'm not going to dump off at the first sign of trouble.

"Ah well," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I seem to have a talent for making people want to kill me anyway," he said a little too jokingly. "But, better to be brave and live a little than never live at all."

She let Thea go.

And she seemed to truly care about Shayla's concerns as well. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. How could ANYONE, in granting the wish of another that might confiscate their own well being, be all that bad?

This wasn't the only thing that Shayla was in wonder about though. Thea's release was certainly a good thing, but something else had just happened.

When the woman first came through the door, in her fatigue, Shayla had caught a flash of something.

A flash of the rest of the Force, perhaps?

No. That wasn't it.

There was something distinctly familiar about this, whatever it was. And she couldn't place it not yet.

It was like a sudden warmth...a touch in the Force.

But not a touch like Thea's. This was the touch of someone who somehow impacted Shayla's thoughts, possibly her past experiences...

Then it dawned on her.

Erik? she thought into the darkness of the Force that she could still feel.

It must have been a dream, or some strange desire of hers for him to come to her again. He wasn't there, and certainly if he wasn't there now he couldn't have been there before.

Or could he?

Slipping from her reverie, Shayla looked down at the creature before the woman's door, and she noticed it was looking at her in the most peculiar fashion.

Feeling a bit spooked by the thing, Shayla wandered back to her quarters, closed the door behind her, and returned to her meditative state.

She didn't know if he was out there, or if what she had just felt was even real. What she did know was that she needed to rely on herself to stay safe. All other hopes she might have for someone to save her would get her nowhere.

"Ahhh, seems we are about to the fleet. It'll only be five minutes now." He smiled over at her, but she seemed still deep in thought, so he rambled on. "We can make plans once we reach the my Star Destroyer The Hornett. Of course first we'll be able to get some rest, clean up, and eat. And," he added, a michevous grin spreading across his face, "We can find you some shoes while we're at it..."

Potential...your true potential...

Those words just kept ringing in her head. She still wanted to fight it, and to remain in blissful ignorance, but she knew she couldn't do that anymore.

If I'm going to rely on myself to take care of myself, I have to be honest with myself too.

The thought sounded strange, and she laughed inside at the reduncancies.

Was that the first time she'd laughed in so long? But it was true. Shayla had to take care of herself, and she had to be honest with herself in order for that to work.

Hesitantly but surely, she let her mental guard down. She allowed the memories from her trip into the nothingness to return. The visions...and their implications, all permeated her thoughts.

The woman had done all this to her, and rather her cohort...the horned creature, had swept her into the nothingness.

She remembered being "blanked" by the woman, then being transported somehow to him. And when he was bored with her, he'd sent her off into what seemed to be, for the most part, another deminsion.

But the woman had brought her back.

The discrepancies, the good versus the bad, frankly confused Shayla. But she isn't all evil, I know that now. I've seen it. This woman needs my friendship, and even my sistership. I can certainly give that to her for the time being without sacrificing myself completely. What harm can it do to befriend someone who wants to be befriended?

The answer came rather easily to Shayla.

No harm could come whatsoever.

And there was something else she saw in all the memories, particularly the visions. The message was getting clearer all the time: Trust yourself. You have all the skills, just let go.

Very well. Time to trust yourself Shayla. And, she thought, finally opening her eyes and wiping the sweat from her forehead that she didn't know had formed.

And time to investigate your surroundings as well...you've been sitting here doing nothing far too long...

Fleet?!? Wow...

...brought me momentarily out of the morass I had been starting to sink into. I shook off the feeling of...well, I suppose "trepidation" is the closest I could come to describing what I had been feeling, and pinned my focus on what was going on around me.

There it was, dead ahead of us. Now, I don't know what kind of fleet old Palpatine had in his heyday, but if he had ever had to pit it against something of this nature, it's no wonder he lost the war.

It was that impressive. Waiting patiently for the return of its... Captain?? Admiral?? "Take me to your leader..." was an assortment of Imperial leftovers enough to knock the pants off a Hutt.

An enormous SSD occupied centerspace, surrounded by no less than three Victory-class Star Destroyers. They in turn were flanked by a couple of Imperial-class destroyers, and underscored by the menacing presence of one shadowy Eclipse-class. The space within their somewhat daunting mass was taken up with the buzzing about of various and sundry Skiprays, Scimitar assault bombers, TIE defenders and interceptors. Heck, they even had an old Nkllonian shield ship; I put aside my wonder of what in Hell's Seven Circles they could ever use that for, and turned to Terrin.

My eyes were probably as wide as the space surrounding us.

"Ahh-- er... " I gurgled a little stupidly. "Nice fleet..."

I then allowed myself to sit back more comfortably in the copilot's seat, letting him play the navboard and do the formalities in getting us safely ensconced in that quietly deadly mass.

Who the heck WAS this guy, anyway? Well, if I had to find someone to hook up with, at least he has some "oomph" to him, I thought to myself, casting a quick sidelong glance toward Terrin's strong face. A little grin niggled about the corners of my lips...

So he want's ME for a pilot, ey?

...and was promptly squelched by a rapidly and completely overwhelming sensation of terror and impending doom that suddenly shrouded me.

The Sith he was chasing, who had his friend. It WAS her. I knew it; I could feel it, could feel her hovering out there like a Dagoban swamp slug, just waiting for us to get close enough so she could crush us all into tiny little bits and spew us from one end of the Galaxy to another. If we're lucky....

Great Khaandon's Ghost, we're gonna need way, way bigger ships....

I didn't even know that I was pulled up into a little ball, that my arms were gripping myself so tightly that my nails pierced my flesh and a tiny stream of blood was trickling upon them. The sight of Terrin's wonderful Fleet faded before the image of Her pale face, which rose before my unfocused gaze, her eyes dark with hatred, that damnable thing on her forehead blindingly bright.

Sheer, uncontrollable terror washed over me in a flood.

I don't know if I can stand up to facing her again....

It was rather like looking into the eyes of a god, and spitting. One had to pay the piper afterward.

Even though she remained apparently removed from her surroundings, she was quite aware of all which was occurring aboard her ship. Well she knew of Shayla's continuing inner demons; the smile which lightened her pale face at that recognition broadened yet further. Without her door, still her self-imposed guardian and Blood-Hunt Companion, M'wonBo'o continued to fret.

She smiled even further, feeling strength returning to her body and her mind, feeling the Glyph upon her brow beginning to brighten with inherent energies. In this pleasant state she began to reach forth a tendril of herself to calm her Beast...

...when quite suddenly, it was as though a completely darkened room became impossibly darker.

Graysith's eyes flew open at the sensation, and there before her was writhing an oily, blackened bit of otherness. It coiled about like some venomous serpent, lengthening, broadening, seeking strange egress as via even more bizarre contortions it finally slithered upright, and took form.

Graysith gasped slightly. Then, her eyes closing of their own accord, she crossed her arms across her breast, bowing her head in allegiance and subservience and respect.

"My Dark One," came her whisper, as silken as the the invitation of a succubi. Then, her head still bowed, she waited in silence as the inky ribbon exploded into matter and Aelvedaar stepped forth into her quarters.

He fixed her with his powerful, molten gaze, one clawed hand reaching out to cup her cheek with deceptive gentleness . "My Love," came his answering bass rumble.

Graysith raised her face to his at his tickling insistence. "What is thy bidding, my love?" she finally inquired. "A most welcomed visitation this is, albeit one completely unforeseen. In what manner---"

She gasped, as the grip upon her face tightened its hold, and immediately attempted to drop her face and gaze before Him.

He would have none of that, and held her in a grip of tempered durasteel. His volcanic eyes drilled into her, boring into the back of her skull.

"Take care in thy current ministrations, my Dark One," his bass whisper deepened to that of thunder threatening upon some dismal skyline. "For it is not becoming of a Sith."

With an effort not visibly evident, Graysith kept herself under control. Even the Glyph remained neutral to an extent, its energies humming forth in the low ultraviolet. "My love," she stated smoothly. "What has prompted such an accusation? For am I not the One Chosen by you, and in this manner made more than the Sith you would have me as being? Surely my Lord and Love has not erred in his design, for I--"

The grip upon her face tightened more cruelly, the claws now leaving definite imprints upon her flesh. He brought his fearsomely horned visage close to her own, his eyes still pinning her, his mouth mere millimeters from her own. His breath was charnel-house hot against her lips.

"Seek ye within, that thou shalt be made aware of thy wayward path."

The Chosen Daughter fought briefly to shake her head in denial... then ceased. At his merest bidding, she closed her eyes. Not true, not true! she raged within as, reaching deeply inside herself, she sought to prove Him wrong in His assessment.

And there, deep within her own psyche, she came upon a familiar scene. A tiny kernel, jealously guarded by a still-quiescent Beast, its turquoise eyes peering helplessly into her own, awaiting discovery.

Or rememberance.

"No-" she whispered. "No, he scorned me, he meant to kill me, he is dead to me..."

The turquoise eyes continued to stare at her in helpless accusation, suddenly deepening and taking on a more greenish hue. Ashen black hair framing those brilliant orbs sequed into golden blonde, then deepened to red as the eyes likewise deepened to velvet mink.

Their continuing accusation was a literal blow to Graysith. She gasped, flung closed an inner door, and ripped her face from the powerfully clawed hand that held her.

"NO! THIS CANNOT BE!"

In one fluid motion, she was on her feet, the Glyph flaring, her eyes burning into those which still looked through her own and into her very soul. She trembled in anger, an anger she did not even know she had been harboring, not to mention the direction that anger had been directed. With all her strength, the Chosen Daughter pulled herself into control once again.

Aelvedaar merely smiled. "Ahh, my love, " he purred, one hand reaching toward her face once more, this time with the lightness of a lover's caress. "Ever the fiery One you are. One of the myriad reasons I have chosen you amidst eternities."

He paused, waiting for the response he knew was forthcoming, as he gently pulled her face close to his own once again.

"Yours am I, ever, my Dark Heart." The soft whisper in which the words were finally spoken made them more of a valkyrie cry than had they burst forth from her lips in strident passion.

Aelvedaar smiled. "My own Dark Heart in turn," he murmured; then raising his other clawed hand to her opposite cheek he drew her cupped face across the millimeters which separated them, and kissed her.

Rejuvenating strength and purpose flared in Graysith's breast at that kiss. For the briefest of moments, she flung one arm about Aelvedaar's powerfully muscled neck, the other hand reaching upward to play with the horns atop his head as she returned that kiss with an impassioned one of her own. Then she stepped back, a bit breathless.

"Again, my love," Aelvedaar's voice lingered in her mind, even as his body began to fade from her quarters. "Take care in thy current ministrations."

Then he was gone.

Graysith stared at the spot so recently vacated by the Sith Sorcerer, then smiled cruelly. "All that I now do, I do for thee," she vowed silently across the parsecs between them.

"And for the Sith."

He turned, about to interject a fatheaded remark into the quiet void of the cabin when he finally noticed that she was sitting in a little ball in the copilot's seat, looking very pale. A little trickle of blood oozed from somewhere beneath one of her fingernails, where she had hugged herself too tightly.

Sithspit, what is wrong?

"Galen?" he called.

No reply.

"Are you alright?" Stupid question, Danner. He reached over and shook her slightly. Her face was starting to shift from being flushed to a little ashen.

At last, she turned and made eye contact.

"What is the matter, Galen?" Terrin wondered if this had something to do with her sister, the Sith that she was certain was following her even now, and the Sith that he was also certain was holding Shayla. He was a little concerned that maybe she could sense the Sith's presence coming near. He had to know. "Is it...her?"

She remained quiet, observing him thoughtfully, as though wondering if she should really tell him anything at all. "Oh come on, you can talk to me, I promise. Trust me...please?"

...Promising what? That I didn't know, couldn't ever begin to fathom. I just somehow knew it was something beyond Big, far surpassing Momentous, something on a Galactic scale perhaps. All these images somehow were important to each other, as well as to her, and she was important to...

...whatever it was we were up against.... and that same little undefinable sense inside told me with calm assurety that it was far more than the mere retrieval of a jedi padawan.

Problem was, I don't think anyone else knew this but me. I couldn't prove one whit of what concerned me so, either. But I knew....

I took in a deep and shuddery breath, chased my rising trepidations into the back of my head, and brought my focus on Terrin once again. I smiled a bit, suddenly feeling worlds better when I saw the concern he in turn was fairly oozing with.

Concern even a blind Toydarian could see was over me.

I loosened the grip on my arms, one hand reaching tentatively to grasp the one of his own that still held my shoulder. That simple contact broke through the last of my fears, and stirred me back into my old self once again.

"Yeah," I answered him at last. "It's about... her. Jharmeen... I mean, whatever she calls herself now, since it's finally gotten knocked into my hard head that she's Jharmeen no longer.

"But it's her, I know it. I don't know exactly how I know it..."

Don't go there, don't you dare, but oh yes you know how you know this, don't you Galen...?

"I just do."

I paused for breath, searching into his blue eyes, letting myself swim in them for just a moment. Just a brief time of simple enjoyment, for that same sense was now niggling with greater and greater force that pretty soon we weren't gonna have any time to spare for things like that.

And afterward...

I jerked back to the here and now, focusing with stronger determination now. I squeezed his hand.

"I can tell you right now, Terrin, that I don't think your ships are going to be enough. I mean, they're magnificent, and would do well against someone like, well, like the Yuuzhan Vong maybe. But not this, not her, trust me.

"We're gonna have to do some serious talking, and even more serious planning."

I gulped a little, thinking what we were getting ourselves into, then firmed, my hand holding his in a deathgrip now. He winced slightly, and I immediately loosened a touch, but did not let him go. I forced the bigger smile back on my face, then turned to the forward viewscreen.

"Ahh-- are we gonna dock in the normal manner, or splat into Hutt slime?" I queried, with something of my old joie de vivre as I motioned with my free hand toward the rapidly approaching Hornett. I then gave his hand a final squeeze before letting it go, whereupon it joined its fellow in dancing the directions for final docking procedures upon the navigational board.

How in the name of all the Treasure on Roon he managed to do that while still pinning me with those blue eyes of his, I'll never know. Heh... guess we really did have something in common after all, besides the fact that we were both on the trail of the same Sith.

A very, very dangerous one. This wasn't gonna be easy.

I said as much as we entered the docking bay, and settled to a halt. Then I quieted along with the Eagle, as she shut down system after system and put herself to sleep.

Terrin turned to me, crooked a brow in my direction, waved a hand gallantly. I grinned, suddenly feeling much better, as I rose from the copilot's seat, rubbing my torn arms a little as I did.

"Umm-- you said something about shoes?"

He heard his voice come out, but it was hollow.

What the Sithspit are you doing, buddy? You aren't just falling for this one the typical way. You really like her. She and you are on the same path, and apparently a very deadly one at that...why is it that you stay when so much is at risk?

Sure, there was Shayla, whom he still needed to find, but after his bust from Ambria he highly doubted he'd get paid if he did find her. In short, he could abandon the whole deal with the Moff and not be in worse shape than he already was bussiness-wise. Even so, he sensed something within him that he'd tried on numerous occasions before to push back. For once he actually cared about someone other than himself. It might be the close proximity he'd had with Galen, or the fact that they'd escaped together, but still, he cared for her. More than he would have ever planned.

Ah well. Life is what happens while you are making other plans, he thought, grinning a little.

He hit the release lever that extended the hatch of the Eagle, and lead Galen down the ramp.

At the bottom Stanza, his personal assistant, and a few of his men stood waiting in line Imperial-style.

He smiled over at Stanza.

"Good to see you in one piece, Terrin."

"Yeah, good to be here in one piece," he replied. "I'd like you to meet Galen," he said, waving a hand in her direction. "Galen meet my asistant, Matt Stanza." The two exchanged pleasantries, and Terrin added, "Galen is the reason I made it here in one piece. Quite a pilot she is, and I think we'll find her talents quite helpful in our next venture."

Matt arched an eyebrow at Terrin. "Next venture?"

"All in good time, buddy. First I want Galen to be taken to the Red level guest suite so she can get cleaned up and rested a bit. It's been a long trip. We'll all meet in the dining hall in three standard hours.

Til then, I'll be in my quarters if anyone needs me. And Galen, I'll drop by to pick you up from your room, so you don't feel lost trying to find your way around my SSD."

"Your SSD?" Matt asked, grinning again and shooting Terrin a knowing look. "You ole smoothie. Come on, Galen, let's get you to the guest suite."

To her right was the woman's quarters, and the cabin of the ship...she'd been there. To her left, the rest of the ship, which she'd only seen a little of while getting something to eat.

To the left then.

Shayla began wandering down the short hallway of the shuttle, curious as to exactly what she was looking for. For some reason she suddenly wanted to understand all of this...why she was here and where precisely here was.

Follow the guidance of the Force, she heard from somewhere. She wasn't sure who spoke those words or if anyone spoke them at all.

Very well then. She proceeded down the hallway, noticing that there were a couple of other rooms, most likely quarters like her own, all the way down the hall. She walked past the kitchenette where she had eaten earlier.

No reason to go back there, Shayla thought to herself.

Oddly enough, she felt as though the Force was really guiding her somewhere...to something that she should see. As she continued walking, she observed strange markings all over the shuttle, above door controls and any sort of controls for that matter.

A language? Whatever it was, Shayla didn't recognize it. She stored that information in her mind, and proceeded on, The shuttle was not very big, for shortly she reached the back of the shuttle where she found a sort of very small cargo hold...and a small closet with some rather peculiar objects to look through.

As she stepped into the closet, she noticed some dark robes hanging on a rack to her right. She ran her hand through them, feeling the material was soft and flowing.

Sith robes? The thought made her shudder, and a feeling she hadn't had for some time was trying to emerge. She shoved it back.

There is good in her too, and she needs me, Shayla reminded herself.

In front of her she found a rack of old books. Curious, she flicked on the light switch to her right and picked up one of them. The book was heavy and very worn. She opened the front page, and immediately realized that this writing was the same as the writing all over the shuttle.

Then, it all began to fit together. Sith robes, strange writings, the woman...this was a Sith shuttle...

Shayla closed the book and put it back on the rack, and turned to leave when to her right she noticed something shining. Surprised by this, she peered over to the source and spotted it...on the floor, next to her feet.

Crystal? Here? How bizarre...

Shayla intended to leave the four crystal shards where they were, but something was pulling her towards them, as though one of them was meant for her.

Fine, she thought. I can take a hint.

She picked up the smallest of the crystal shards, which was about the length of her thumb. The crystal shone, and was of a soft violet hue.

Feeling satisfied with this find, Shayla left the closet and the cargo hold and wandered back to her quarters, suddenly feeling as though she was being watched.

What she was going to do with this crystal, she had not yet determined. Why she had even decided it must be hers was beyond her.

But the Force was guiding...

Take care in thy current ministrations... The words, uttered so softly, rang with unwonted harshness in her mind. Take care...

Abruptly, she came to a halt, her hands clenched by her side, working the material of her signature cloak. Her Sith cloak.

For Sith I am, am I not? That unsettling question came welling up from deep within her soul, to hover laughing before her inner gaze. Within, the Beast reared it's blind head, beginning to grumble its misgivings, one taloned paw tightening its grip upon that tiny kernel which yet lay hidden there, unbeknownst to her until now.

From whence came that mote? Graysith let the growing rage die down a bit as she pondered this apparent enigma. For once it was alive within me, only to have been squelched when... when He dared to toss me aside like an old bone....

Old bone... That image provoked yet another, several in fact. Shadowy images rising from a cloying mist, seeking to dissipate that dark fog with a ray of light, fighting against it in a proposition neither winning nor losing. But in their silent battle, winning here and there a semblance of victory in that something of themselves were allowed brief egress from that dark.

Shadowy landscapes tumbled across deep memories: landscapes dusty and sere, in which an older man and two young women seemed to laugh and dig, unearthing both bone and remnant and shard and ancient stone and shining crystal... until One which shone with the Darkest light of all was discovered.

"No..." The Chosen Daughter was scarcely aware that she had uttered the word. Her eyes closed in something close to pain, as one slim hand reached up to the Sigil upon her brow.

With obstinate mockery, it remained low-keyed, as though it too were waiting. Somewhere, something uttered an evil little chuckle. Somewhere, a doorway, peeping open, slowly closed.

M'wonBo'o raised his fearsome head, and growling, rose menacingly to his feet. There he silenced himself, his head down, his tendrils alertly sensing, his pupilless eyes affixed upon the cloaked figure before him.

A dark whisper came to her ears, its echo coursing icily through her very essence. Chosen Daughter, none but thee... chosen thou hast been, and allowed to choose in turn.

What hast thou indeed truly chosen? What strengths guide thy path? To what End do you adhere?

Slowly, slowly, Graysith's eyes opened, focused... upon herself. All that she had been, and now was. All she had endured, believed, succored within her. What she did indeed choose in the end.

As well as the End path she chose now.

And toward that End, saw how she had erred. Saw with new eyes the wisdom of Aelvedaar, who had through it all remained silent until this last moment, letting her find her way. A Way now beckoning before her, its road suddenly a rocky one, but one she began to step forth upon with a new and much grimmer determination.

And in a blinding flash of insight, understood the true depth of those six brief words he had uttered.

The All was her strength, the great Powers bestowed upon her a beacon shining her way to her final destiny. But she had misused them so greatly; she saw that with such clarity now...

One ought not reveal one's complete armament to one's enemies until the moment one strikes out with it with deadly force, lest in that glimmering the enemy finds a chance means to protect himself from it.

"So be it."

The words came in a whisper, yet one which rang far beyond the walls of her quarters. Graysith's focus was slightly diverted as she felt a nudge against her leg; the great tuk'ata had clicked his way to her side, and was butting his head against her affectionately, his earlier misgivings vanished, his simple mind awaiting instruction.

She looked down to him, caressed his streamlined head, playfully tweaked a face-tendril. Go, my Faithful One, she sent forth a bit of herself into his mind. Go now and seek she who is with us, who I in turn have chosen. Bring her to me.

I have much which needs attention.

With that, she let her hand drop from M'wonBo'o, who growled in obedience and departed from her quarters. As did the Chosen Daughter, who let her feet take her to the bridge.

There she seated herself, and closing her eyes, concentrated.

The entire bow section of the Sith ship then burst with violent energies as, in her final utilization of them until The Time Was At Hand, Graysith called upon the All to release the ship from its hidden spot in elseness.

It popped into the Universe like a cork from a bottle, spewing forth seeker droids in the process.

Then she sat back in her pilot's seat, pondering her next move. There were those out there who sought to stop her. It was only a matter of which one she wished to destroy first.

Crouch I as... yess-ss-sss... there, toward strange moving canyon-wall comes this ONE, this SHE, HER fur through non-stone of some strange place reeking, HER hand of non-life small source being... alarmed, her mind I creep into, as my eyes wait to plunge into HERS...

And there it was, the creature, looking at her as though to pounce on her.

At first Shayla winced back, bumping against the door of her quarters. Then, from somewhere deep within herself that she was not aware of until now, calm emerged. Complete and utter calm. Shayla bathed in the peace, and took a deep breath, withdrawing from the door on which now she was leaning.

And as though her mind and its were one, her thoughts seemed to suddenly become its thoughts.

A Telepathic being, Shayla reasoned. She had been in contact with such before, just not this kind. Most people, when approached by such, pushed the other being from their mind. Shayla, however, had learned to deal with the circumstances, and let her mind become part of its.

Where? she asked it.

The reply, as was her question, came in a thought rather than in words. She was to follow him to the cabin, where She awaited her.

Shayla nodded, and sent out a message of understanding.

And to the bridge, they proceeded...

Well now, this looks somehow familiar, doesn't it Galen ol' girl? Heh; same song, second, third, or was it the fourth verse....

For the briefest of moments the smile on my face dimmed as the words to those other verses ran quickly through my mind.

That Kaladorian dress given to you by Seus on the Bounty Hunters Guild World... the black jumpsuit and jacket bought for you by Sorben... the opulence of the suites afforded you by Actar... the Sith flightsuit appropriated aboard the Jester ...and restored to you by Her....

I shivered a little, then quieted, a rueful little grin upon my face. Sheesh, ol' girl; when ya ever gonna get a job and buy your own wardrobe, hmmm???

The answering "when rancors dance" was pushed firmly away as I slapped my hands to my thighs.

No better time than the present, I thought. Let's see what bounty awaits you here.

After a brief reconnoiter of the rooms handed to me... as well as confirming that, yes Galen, the door does indeed open to your touch, you are definitely not a prisoner here... I headed for the 'fresher. Once more I wallowed in the hedonistic pleasures of hot, running water and perfumed soap. I took my time, putting myself in a sultry and lazy mood. Then I slinked out, a T'Bryllian towel muffling my body in its likewise heavenly folds, and headed to the locker.

Locker. Now, that's scarcely the correct name for this, Galen... For though my quarters were scarcely warmed by the touch of carved greel wood, did not have the whole-foot encompassing carpet upon its floor that the Bim Rennian suites had possessed, the accomodations which surrounded me were scarcely of a militaristic bent. Originally spare, they had yielded to the expert touch of someone who had enriched them with art works and throw rugs and pillows and wall hangings from all over the Galaxy. The aforementioned "locker" was a large and ornate cabinet, hailing from the Corporate Sector. It fairly oozed with a strangely austere glitz.

I opened its doors, and rummaged about its rather large interior. At length I emerged with two items of clothing clutched in my hands. For a brief moment I hesitated, knowing full well that first appearances are the most important ones, and I was to be introduced to those who mattered as some sort of hotshot pilot whom Terrin had found. I glanced from one item to the other...

...and common sense won out in that it backed off entirely in the matter.

I flung aside the simple black jumpsuit with its accompanying gold-buckled belt and ankle-length, sleeveless tunic, and turned my attentions to the dress I now shook out to admire.

I believe the planet of its origin was Naboo, and it looked to be meant for royalty. What it was doing here I hadn't a clue, but for one night it was not going to languish any further in that darkened cabinet. Basking in the feel of the rich material, I pulled it on. Then I went to the full-length mirror embedded in the bulkhead of the sitting room, and stared.

Long and flowing it was, of the deepest midnight. Its entirety was covered with something that glittered and sparkled like the very stars of the heavens, giving the garment a look of having captured that canopy and incorporating it into its folds. Here and there hung hand-worked other things, which likewise glimmered with a soft, silvery light, and tinkled with an approximation of starsong as I moved. The dress hung like the Night about me, covering me yet at the same time revealing coquettishly that which ought to be revealed. A line from a long-lost poem jumped into my mind; Khaandon knew who had written it or when:

She walks in beauty like the Night....

It would do nicely.

I looked for the shoes Terrin had promised, and found them sitting unobtrusively in the bottom of that wondrous cabinet. Simple they were; soft leather slippers of a hue to match the glimmer in the dress. I slipped them on; of course they fit perfectly.

I then moved to the door to my quarters, opening them with a single gesture. There I poked my head out, looking right and left down corridors which extended seemingly to infinity. I smiled to myself; guess I'd best wait to be retrieved. Terrin was right; this was a Super Star Destroyer...

Wow...

...and I could quite easily get lost if I decided to go wandering about. The best thing to do now would be to show some patience and wait until Terrin came to get me, as he had promised.

A sudden and very insignificant noise startled me out of my pleasant thoughts. I jerked, my eyes roving around to determine the source. Ahh-- there it was, hiding in the shadows of a nearby alcove. A small mouse-like messenger droid sat there, its antenna quivering in my direction.

My smile broadened. "Boo!" I said, the tone of my voice a cross between a whisper and a shout.

The little droid fairly jumped, bleebling a startled protest of its own. Then it rose on its tiny repulsors and fled down the corridor, churbling and prattling its outrage as it went.

Still smiling, I pulled my head back into my quarters, letting the doorway whoosh closed behind me. Somehow, I knew I wasn't going to have to wait long for my retrieval.

Without, the pinkish-mauve ball of Ambria slowly turned about its axis. So far her little ship had gone unnoticed; soon she would have to make certain that it remained thus by taking her departure. But first things first...

"Ahh-- Shayla," she began in a softly inviting tone. "Thank you for coming to me."

Now she turned in her seat and, rising gracefully to her feet, approached the young woman, her hands held out in quiet offering, a genuine smile brightening her pale face. Upon her forehead, the Glyph lay quiescent.

Now coming close to Shayla, she took up her hands in both of hers. For an impossibly brief moment, her gaze bored through the greeny-blue eyes before her, and into the back of Shayla's head. There it began to quest about, as though seeking something... but abruptly recoiled itself and backed out.

The small incident took up the barest of nanoseconds. Graysith still smiled. Her hands remained clasping Shayla's. The Glyph remained dark and somehow brooding.

Graysith continued on as though nothing untoward had happened. "You must forgive me for seemingly ignoring you, Shayla," she spoke up smoothly, leading the young woman in a manner equally smooth out of the command bridge and down the connecting corridor. "I am usually not so remiss to those I... entertain aboard my ship."

She paused outside a small hatchway, reached forth, opened it. It slid silently upward, revealing a small but comfortable lounge within. With a smile, the Chosen Daughter beckoned to Shayla, bidding her enter. After but a moment's hesitation, she did so, with Graysith following her and taking a seat across a small table from her.

The Dark Lady smiled again, her head cocked as she studied the woman before her. "You must have many, many questions," she began softly, accentuating the words with a quickly raised hand to fend off those very questions seeking disclosure before her. "In due time, all shall be answered, young one.

"But first I have one I would ask of you."

The smile on Graysith's face seemed to simultaneously deepen and darken with those words as, taking a moment's pause, she reached for one of many delicacies gracing a small platter upon the table between them. Leaning back comfortably, she took a bite, her free hand indicating that Shayla help herself. The jedi paused uncertainly, then acquiecsed, leaning forward and plucking an enticingly ripe t'plykk fruit from the platter, then bringing it to her lips, her eyes never leaving the violet pair before her.

The bite she was intending to take froze at the next words Graysith spoke to her.

"What would you have of me, my sister-to-be?" the Chosen Daugher inquired.

You have a female to impress and some business to work out, buddy. Time to get up and get ready for whatever lies ahead.

Sighing and blinking the last bits of sleep from his eyes, Terrin got up and wandered over to the fresher, where he stayed in the shower for a good thirty minutes. He emerged in a dark blue robe that matched the shade of his eyes, and wandered over to his closet.

Gotta look good for this one, man, he reminded himself. Usually when it was just he, his partner, and the rest of the guys they all stayed pretty casual. But with Galen there, things would be different. And besides, this dinner was more business than usual, considering the topic that would most certainly come up.

From the assortment of jumpsuits and uniforms he had in his closet, Terrin pulled out a pair of casual black pants and a deep blue tunic. He changed out of his robe into these clothes, then slid on some less-worn boots than the ones he had been traveling in.

Feeling satisfied with his clothing, Terrin went back into the fresher, where he gave his semi-wet blonde hair a look. It was starting to get longer, but was still fairly short. He hoped it didn't look too messy to Galen.

Didn't look to messy to Galen? Since when do you care about something like that? He grinned michievously at himself in the mirror, amused with his sudden concern about his appearance.

After combing through his hair, Terrin set the comb down on the fresher station's counter. He picked up a bottle that had been sitting next to the sink, screwed the top off, then turned it over above his other hand, allowing a little of the liquid to run into it. Then, he returned the bottle to it's upright position and sat it on the counter again. Rubbing the hand with liquid on it from the left side of his chin over to his right, Terrin applied the shave lotion. He replaced the top, then gave his face one more glance in the mirror to make sure he looked presentable.

Terrin turned, proceeded to his door, shut the lights in the room off, and exited his quarters. He locked the door behind him, then walked down the hallway a short distance to Galen's guest suite. He knocked, and in only a few moments, she answered.

And he couldn't keep his jaw from nearly falling to the floor. There she stood, her big brown eyes looking straight through him, in a gorgeous midnight blue gown. Or was it that SHE made the gown look gorgeous? The blue accentuated her short red hair and pale skin esquisitely.

He was, for once in his life, completely...speechless.

"Urrmm.." he started, the roguish grin that had been pulling at the corners of his mouth at last emerging, "Ready to go?"

Shayla wasn't sure at first she was really hearing these words. How could this be, that she wants to know what I want of her? What does she want of me?

No, this was no dream, this was the real thing. Worry began to chew at the corners of Shayla's mind, but she pushed it away. Then suddenly, something bubbled from within her. The peace that had come to her just only a little while ago arose in her anew.

And suddenly she knew exactly what to say.

Realizing that she was sitting there stupidly, still holding the fruit in front of her, Shayla smiled softly, putting it down near her lap.

"My friend," she started, surprised at how smoothly and certainly her words flowed, "I do not know what I would have of you, as I do not yet know what you would have of me. There is so much here that I do not understand, and without that understanding, I cannot make a fair decision on what should come next.

I am a padawan, and because of that I truly feel that I belong with the Jedi. However, nothing occurs without design, and I am certain the Force is here with me, guiding me to hear you out.

So I suppose what I truly would have of you...is that you tell me the truth of why I am here."

With that Shayla stopped, her blue-green eyes still not shifting from the other's violet ones. Try to read them she might, but she did not yet have that ability.

Only the woman's verbal answer would determine Shayla's next move...

Oh my, they were actually shined....

...to his still-damp hair. It was quite obvious he had taken the care to make himself presentable for the occasion; okay, so a part of me was beginning to hope that care was prompted by my presence here on the Hornett.

For a moment I flashed back to another day, another occasion, seeming a lifetime ago, when a certain bounty hunter had stood before my door with practically the same awe-stricken look on his face, as he took in my appearance in the identical manner in which Terrin was taking it in now. I drew in a deep breath, waiting for the hurt to hit...

...only, surprisingly enough, it didn't. There was something in Terrin's face which was, oh I don't know, more sincere maybe....

I smiled my widest smile, allowing my teeth to flash at him. "I'm ready whenever you are," I announced as I glided from my quarters, stopping to slip my arm into the crook of his. I looked up into those deep blue eyes, and gave his arm a little squeeze.

At length she leaned back upon the lounge, one hand toying gracefully upon the headrest. "In my travels I have heard it be said that Jedi revere life; yet they would stand silent by while that which would threaten that life grows in strength and power."

She paused a bit, well aware that she had piqued Shayla's curiosity by her seeming non sequiteur, then went on. "I find this discrepency... odd."

Now she rose to her feet, gliding silently to the back of the little room, staring out a small viewport there which revealed the planet over which they still orbited. Even as she stood there, the planet's terminator slipped around it's disk, followed by a sprinkling of sparkling stars as, one by one, the cities and communities below began to turn on their lights.

Graysith nodded in the direction of the planet, her slim hands clasped together within the folds of her cloak. "There is a greater Light I would show the Jedi," she purred, then whirled faster than Shayla could give her credit for, pinning her once again with her violet stare.

Deep within the very core of the Chosen Daughter, a great and crescendoing rumble began to build. It was like the core-deep strain of converging tectonic plates, beginning low and deep but building inexorably in power and strength until the rock at last would give way in its destined slippage....

"Take care in thy current ministrations, my love."

Graysith only continued smoothly, as though that inner warning was but a fleeting thought... or some form of self-induced imagery. She regained her seat, settled herself comfortably there. Then she leaned forward, suddenly earnest.

"I am not Who you think, nor the What," she whispered. "Once I tried to reveal this to you, to show you, but was scorned. In foolish anger I retaliated; later I was able to appease my regret, for are you not here with me now?

"These things, though, are of no import." She sat up straighter, laying her hands quietly in her lap, her eyes never leaving the pair before her. Then slowly, in some admixture of invitation and entreaty, she held out one hand toward Shayla.

"What would I have of you in turn? Why, you. It is you that I, Graysith, the Chosen Daughter and Retainer of the All, have need of. For there is Great Life which has been horribly taken, as well as small, and I would that both be restored to their rightful places.

"I need you to assist me as sister, Shayla. I need to teach you how."

But this was so different. Galen was beautiful, but there was more. She was obviously a woman who had been through much, and who possessed a very strong character.

That strong character rather attracted him. Terrin had suspected that the same type of character had also attracted him to Shayla, but he had shoved her away for fear of losing himself in her strength. Now, well, this was different. He didn't care if he lost himself in Galen. In fact, he almost wanted to.

At last, they reached the meeting room, and the door slid open, admitting them into a small room with one hard wood table surrounded by wooden chairs with soft padding. The set up easily suggested this was a conference room.

Around the table sat three men, and two women. The first was Matt Stanza, a short man with red hair. Next to him sat an older man with thinning hair and rough skin. This man Terrin knew well, his name was Scott Garber and he was one of the founding fathers of the company. Next to him sat one of the two females, Tarna Sykes, an older overweight blonde whose only business there was her large contributions to Eagle Enterprises. Next to her sat her daughter and Terrin's partner's fiance, Renee Sykes. Renee was tall and slender with long smooth brown hair that reached past her shoulders. She was a stylish dresser, and tonight wore a pale green gown that sat off her shoulders and accentuated her dark skin and green eyes. Next to Renee was Terrin's business partner, Aaron Barnes. Aaron was a fairly tall man with wide shoulders and large muscles. He had short dark hair and deep brown eyes that usually implied he was brooding over something.

Terrin smiled at his partner and the other guests as he entered. "Hello all, sorry to be late. Time slipped by faster than I thought it would."

He lead Galen over to one of the two chairs left, let her sit, then seated himself in the chair next to her. "This is Galen Jinn'Dar, a brillant pilot who escorted me out of Ambria."

With the mention of Ambria, Aaron shot Terrin a rather dark look, as though he wished that Terrin had stayed to close out the deal rather than wrecklessly leaving.

Oh well, Aaron, we'll get to that, sooner than I'd like I suspect. He shifted his gaze from Aaron back to Galen, and smiled warmly at her. "Galen," he said, introducing everyone from his right on around, "Meet Aaron Barnes, my partner; his fiance, Renee Sykes; her mother, Tarna Sykes; Scott Garber, one of Eagle Enterprises founders; and Matt Stanza, my personal assistant whom you've already met.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries, and Terrin noticed that Aaron had gone from his look of questioning to one of amusement.

Was it THAT obvious? Ah well, so what?

"Now that everyone knows everyone," Matt said, exchanging the grin and knowing look with Aaron that Terrin thought he was seeing alot of as of late, "Can we eat? I'm starved!"

"Yes," Aaron said. "We eat this wonderful roast nerf first. Only after then will we talk business. Although while we eat I'd love to hear this tale, Terrin, of how Galen so smoothly aided you in your escape from Ambria..."

Your potential...your True Potential...

And at last, Shayla knew what she had to do and that she alone was the one who could do it. She didn't know where the strength was coming from, or how long it would last. But for once, she had to believe in the sole guidance of the Force, and in herself, Shayla Petrolu.

What are you doing, Galen Jhin'Dar?! it scolded in an aggrieved tone of voice. Remember what it is you carry, who it is that seeks you, as well as why...

...and why you left Sorben to begin with.

Or was the reason you professed indeed why you did?

I blinked, suddenly aware that the conversation around the table had quieted, and folks' eyes were affixed to where I sat still holding my fork in mid-air.

I let out a little breath, then straightened in my chair. "Perhaps that exit wasn't quite as smooth as Terrin would have preferred," I offerred as, with a somewhat forced little smile, I took the meat into my mouth and chewed.

Next to me, I could practically feel the moan I knew Terrin was holding inside himself, as all eyes now swiveled as one in his direction.

I hid my widening grin with my hand, then removed it and swallowed. "But then again, perhaps his last meal that day hadn't been as 'worthy of savoring' as is this delicious roast," I concluded, an innocent look on my face. Quite calmly then, I stabbed out with my fork and took another bite of nerf.

Thank Khaandon that annoyance had left my shoulder. I'd more closely inspect what it had to say...

...but not right at this moment in time.

Matt chuckled. "Never one for rough exits, were you Terrin, buddy?"

Terrin rolled his eyes at the short redheaded man. "As I recall you lost a meal or two during our escapades with David Wyner," he said, his lip curling in a nesty grin.

"Hey! You know as well as I did the food there left little to be desired!"

"Sure, sure. But I don't recall you complaining about it when you were out with that Nina from his staff," Terrin teased.

Matt frowned at him, but a smile was obviously pulling at the corners of his lips.

"So," Aaron interrupted, "What is this of our switching courses, and why is Krenoff calling here on the hour like a madman?"

Terrin winced. "Well, I sorta left him hanging. I know where Shayla is, and he's not listening to me. He'd rather keep me pinned on Ambria where I'm not doing any good, and I'm not going to play that game anymore."

Aaron seemed to consider this. "So...where is Ms. Stargazer?"

Terrin hesitated, and shot a look over at Galen. Then he mustered up the best half-truth he could come up with. "She's being held hostage on board a shuttle that was last seen near Ambria. I'd like to take The Hornett, a few of our smaller shuttles, and one of the Eclipses in to find her."

Scott chimed in. "Why do we need that much manpower to get her?"

"Umm...best to make a lasting impression on her captor. We'd look pretty pathetic only bringing one or two shuttles in to get her."

"Okay, allright," Aaron said, "I'll buy that we need to appear impressive. But who captures a Jedi padawan anyway? Or does someone else have unfinished business with Ms. Stargazer as well?"

Avoid the Sith thing, Terrin buddy, if you can. I can't say who would want a Jedi padawan."

"Then how do you know she's on this shuttle?" Matt interjected.

Terrin wanted to crawl under the table. This wasn't going the way he wanted. "An Admiral Actar has advised me that she is there. He also knows who is holding Shayla."

Time to tell the truth. "Galen also has experience with Shayla's captor, and will be of great help. But you must trust me on this, and lend me the resources Galen thinks we will require. The truth is...well, Shayla's captor...is a Sith."

Terrin thought Aaron was going to fall out of his chair after hearing that. Aaron started to object, but Terrin held up a hand to silence him.

"I know, it's risky. But if we don't fullfill the Moff's demands Eagle Enterprises will be sunk. Besides," he said, a flash of concern running through him that he hadn't realized was there, "Shayla will fair far better dealing with the Moff than dealing with a Sith."

He scanned the group, who had now gone completely quiet. All eyes were on him. He glanced over at Galen, who was looking at him somewhat quizzically. "And I think I owe it to Galen, after she so artfully got us away from Ambria, to help her find this Sith whom she is also searching for."

You think that's it, eh buddy? You just want to help her because she helped you? Right. You're going soft. You like her, and you like her alot. So much that you want to show her...

Aaron sat quietly, and seemed to be mulling over the whole thing in his mind. He sighed, but seemed resigned. "Allright, you can have the fleet."

Terrin kept his jaw from dropping. "All of it?"

Aaron nodded. "You're gonna need it. You're right, if we don't follow this through, the Moff will kill the company. Besides, Eagle Enterprises is mostly yours now anyway, Terrin. I only design the shuttles. You've earned the right to use the fleet for what you feel you must. She's all yours, Captain."

Terrin sighed in relief. "Thank you Aaron, thank you very much."

Then she blinked; whatever had been there disappearing into some deeper realm where a pewter-eyed Beast still hunkered, its razor-taloned paw clutching an impossible little kernel, an unseeming speck of warmth in an entire wasteland of ice and moraine and rock-hard determination.

For a brief moment she merely looked at Shayla. Then that inky stare somehow became sharper, piercing, and suddenly tore into the young padawan's psyche with the ease of a ship plunging into hyperdrive. There she probed, seeking, finding, storing...

...until with a little sigh, she backed out and sat back against the lounge with a graceful nod of her head. Before her, Shayla seemed to shiver, but then firmed. Not one word had she spoken; not one mental guard had come anywhere close to being lifted against that inner probing she had endured.

The Chosen Daughter was satisfied with all she had seen there. Again she nodded; then, in one smooth motion, she leaned forward, and plucked a t'plykk fruit from the platter. She held it up thoughtfully before her, then placed it carefully in the center of the table.

"And now, my young Adept," she whispered in a low and musical tone of voice. "A mere introduction to a new understanding.

"Tell me, concerning this fruit before you. Which side of it is the better half?"

She also felt another there, one whose presence she had not felt for some time. He was entreating with her, pleading for her to not do what she was determined she must do. She sent out a word to him to trust her, and she was certain the woman before her was well aware of this.

"I...love...you," he said at last. Then, as soon as she had felt his Force-touch, she felt it dissipate.

Shayla shivered, well aware of the fact that the two minds that had been linked with hers were certainly now aware of each other. But she must trust herself that what she was doing was what must be done, and that Graysith cared about and trusted her and would therefore cause no harm to those she...well, those she loved.

At last she returned to the reality of the moment, and pushed the emotion that was creeping within her back into the recesses of her mind. There is no emotion, only logic, she thought to herself. And logic tells me that the things Graysith has to teach me are things that I need to learn. There is no wisdom without knowledge.

Graysith reached for one of the fruits, looked at it thoughtfully, then placed it in the center of the table before them both. "Tell me, concerning this fruit before you. Which side of it is the better half?"

The answer was simple, and Shayla thought she saw where this all might be heading. "The fruit has no sides. It is a whole, and therefore is the same throughout."

That being said, Shayla eyed the fruit that was now lying next to her lap, and took it in her hand. She raised it to her lips and took a bite, waiting for Graysith's next reply...

This left Terrin alone with Galen, who hadn't said much of anything since the business dealings had begun. He suspected she was wondering exactly what was going on.

"Shall we go somewhere that's a bit more comfortable than this stuffy conference room?" he asked her.

She seemed to consider this a minute, then nodded. "Sure."

He stood, took her right hand in his left, and helped her from her chair. He took her out of the conference room and lead her back to the Red Level, where he stopped at the door to his quarters and punched in the access code into the keypad by the door. The door slid open, and Galen and he stepped inside.

Terrin lead her into his living area. The walls of the room were white, and a green couch of plush material sat against the wall to the right of the door. In front of the couch was a sturdy dark wooden table, and to each side of the couch highback chairs colored in the same plush green were placed. The carpet was a light tan color, and felt velvety to bare feet.

Terrin released Galen's hand, allowing her to wander into the living area and take a seat on the couch. He kicked off his boots then padded across the floor, sitting down on the couch next to her.

She still hasn't said much, he thought to himself. Maybe the business talk overwhelmed her. Or maybe she's wondering what she's gotten herself into.

He looked over at her, trying to analyze exactly what she might be thinking. Once again, his mind wandered to how wonderful she looked in that blue dress and how much he really liked her. Her big brown eyes met his blue ones and for a moment he thought of leaning in close to kiss her, but then looked down, not wanting to push her too fast. He folded his hands in his lap. "So," he said at last, "now that we have the fleet, what are we going to do with it?"

For another moment they seemed to blacken, as if in response to something she found swimming in Shayla's. Determination was there, eagerness perhaps, but toward what end?

Then backing down a bit, slicing through the mental reply Shayla sent to Erik...

Ahh-- yet another player enters this enticing little 'game....'

...she finally spoke aloud.

"It is but a beginning. Be mindful, the road to fruition is a long one, and one strewn with objects not quite as obvious."

With those words, the Chosen Daughter turned her focus once again to the fruit platter. One slim finger poked delicately amidst the various fruits and edibles piled upon it, as though seeking the ripest and most succulent of the bunch. At length she found what she had been looking for, and withdrew a rungar-apple from the platter.

She held it aloft, directly in front of Shayla, rotating it slowly so as to present all its sides to the young and still-silent padawan/adept. At length she paused, holding it firmly in one spot.

There upon otherwise perfection, a blackened bruise marred its surface. From its center there writhed a small red object. It moved about in a serpentine manner, coiling and raising itself into the air outside it's little kingdom as though seeking something it just couldn't quite see.

For a long moment, Graysith continued to hold the marred fruit before Shayla's greeny-blue gaze; then, her movement delicate, she placed a slim finger against the head of the blarnworm, and thus induced it to seek the haven of its den. Smiling a bit to herself, she reached forward, and placed the apple on the table beside the t'pyllk.

"And now, my young friend," she murmured, her voice low and musical. "Again, which is the better half?"

But then, what determines what is truly perfect? she asked herself.

"Well," Shayla began, "Some would say that the better half is the unbruised one. However, what one determines as worse another may determine as being better. I wouldn't want the part of the fruit with the bruise, but the so-called marred portion of the fruit is that which the worm desires most," she reasoned.

Graysith listened intently, seeming intrigued.

"Then, my young one, you are stating that there is a certain... equality in both sides of the fruit? That it is all a matter of one's perspective, and that from the view of its entirety the fruit is indeed Whole."

She reached out and plucked the rungar-apple from the table, looked at it thoughtfully. Then, her movement sure and swift, she plunged her finger into the bruise, twisting about in the flesh of the fruit, then pulling it out. The little blarnworm was impaled upon one sharp nail.

The smile on her face became a topic of mystery as, still pinning Shayla's eyes with her own, she lifted the worm to her mouth and devoured it.

"And how would this action be interpreted, young one?" she commented, sitting back, the smile suddenly leaving her face, her eyes deepening further into the inkiest of twilight.

She shuddered obviously, and Graysith's mysterious smile spread just a little bit more. "Honestly, my friend?" Shayla dared to ask.

Graysith nodded.

"I would interpret the action as twisted and unnatural."

Truth of the matter though, was that my heart was beginning to pound as wildly as were my churning thoughts.

I managed to keep the rising emotion from my face as I let Terrin lead me to a nicely plush couch, where I seated myself. As expected, he sat down beside me, but seemed to strive to keep himself strangely... removed. Almost as though he was trying to present himself as part of the accoutrements of his comfortable--if kinda spare--quarters.

"Now that we have the Fleet, what shall we do with it?" he queried in my direction.

Now that we have the Fleet? Do I interpret this question as one solidifying my earlier guess, that it isn't quite, er, all his? And logic leading my thoughts from there: is this guy not quite the possessor of the 'oomph' I had formerly believed? And egads, what's all this with a Moff? Yet another big and baddie, Hell's Bells Galen, are you ever going to find one little corner of the Galaxy which these guys will leave alone?

I tilted my head to the side, scrutinizing Terrin, waiting for him to continue. He remained obstinately silent, as though in deference to me. Then quite suddenly, he got to his feet, and walked over to the wall closest to us. He stood there, silent, a strange sort of look darkening his handsome face.

I opened my mouth, ready to erupt with a scathing comment of the sort I used to flare back at Sorben... only it never left my lips. In fact, it never materialized. Hadn't even come close to being the merest glimmer of an idea which would lead to a comment...

I bit off that line of wonder as truth slammed into me like a runaway ronto. Galen, he's trying to impress you. Not only that, but he really means it, at a far deeper level than maybe he admits.

And he's not quite used to doing this, either.

I couldn't keep my jaw from dropping, as my pounding heart began trying to inexplicably leap completely out of my throat. Finally I realized how stupid I was probably looking, and brought my lower jaw somewhat closer to the upper. Kinda hard to gulp like that, but I managed.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, approaching him. I stopped in front of him, my head tilting up to stare into his eyes. Suddenly, I didn't want anything to happen to him...

...and a sudden assurety that something would indeed happen if we kept along this route slammed into my gut. Something was happening...

...something on so many levels and regarding so many different aspects of the future that they all twined together in one jumbled snarl and laughed at my attempt to disentangle them.

I reached out a hand in silent entreaty, waved it helplessly about. Dammit, Galen! This isn't like you one bit...!

Finally I found the words to speak. "I don't think the Fleet is going to be enough, Terrin. And I don't know if you ought to risk it as you are offering. I know you want me to help you..."

I cut my words off, staring into his eyes.

He wants my help; I want to help him!

He wants to help me....

Suddenly it all melded, merging together like the confluence of the myriad tributaries which make up a river.

"I should never had agreed to work with you, Terrin," I whispered, the softness of my whisper in diametric opposition to the growing size of my eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you...."

But there IS something else you can do, Galen! The thought niggled upward, seeking to break through the pausal moment I found myself suddenly swallowed up in. Tell him....

He looked down at the woman before him blankly, a million thoughts speeding through his brain. He felt the monster inside of him trying to break free, the monster that always managed to make him say something stupid and shove those closest to him away. It dared him to utter the words, "I can take care of myself," but those words never came. They just weren't with him anymore.

His hands felt clammy, and he was feeling a little shakey as the realization of how he was feeling hit him like a Super Star Deystroyer. He reached out with his right hand, and took her chin in it. "I...I don't want anything to happen to you either," he managed. Slowly, but with sudden certainty, he leaned in, and gently met his lips with hers. She didn't resist, and he took in her sweet warmness with a longing that he hadn't known was within him til now. Finally, he pulled away from her, but his eyes never left her face. "Galen...I know there is danger. But I need you. I need you..." He looked down, suddenly aware and shocked to find that his eyes were damp. He blinked the tears away. "I need you to help me redeem myself."

...and which remained yet so obstinately Dark to the young woman.

At length she rose gracefully to her feet, the smile she directed toward Shayla a gracious one, the tilt of her head her only release of her. Upon her forehead, though, the Sigil began to flare in shorter and shorter frequencies, until at last these energies approached that of the extremely high ultraviolet as the Rune in turn became most difficult indeed to discern as yet being imbedded within her flesh.

"You are a strong one, my Adept," she commented into the suddenly upwelling iciness which strove to completely encompass the little lounge. "Your insights serve you well, as they always have. And in that servience, they do not surprise me, although I had hoped..."

Graysith bit off the remainder of the words, merely turning with sudden quickness to glide silently over to the hatch. It whooshed open without her so much as lifting one a finger. She began to step forward, but paused momentarily within its frame.

"Every learning endeavor needs a baseline from which true testing of knowledge gained may be weighed. Such is the truth in regards to every student... to those who seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, as well as for those who seek to utilize that knowledge gained.

"And for whatever purpose."

As Graysith exited the little lounge, Shayla's mind wondered over the meaning of those words.

Baseline for knowledge...

Quite obviously, Shayla's answer had been the wrong one. Not that this surprised her, for she had suspected it before she'd ever uttered her feelings on the matter.

"Many of the truths we cling to depend only greatly on our own point of view..."

Shayla remembered Master Skywalker quoting the line of Ben Kenobi's frequently, and suddenly she wondered just exactly what it meant. If the truths we cling to truly depend on our own point of view, then we are the ones who ultimately determine what is good and what is bad. Following this line of reasoning, only I can determine, for myself, what truth and good is.

Shayla was also intrigued to know yet even more of Graysith's own Truths. Knowledge for knowledge's sake, at this point that was what it truly was. Shayla stood by her belief though that she must have the knowledge first before deciding how to utilize it. And have the knowledge she would.

The words "I love you," still echoed in her brain, although she had since silenced the speaker of the words from her mind. She hesitated, but at last whispered back. "I love you too, and I hope someday you will understand."

With that, Shayla rose from her seat, and wandered over to the hatch hesitantly. She hit the release button, watched the hatch open before her, then exited the lounge.

The words pounded in my brain, danced before my inner eye, coursed through my entire body with the pulsation of each exhilarated beat of my heart, which grew so loud that they nearly blocked out the unexpected sweetness of the words altogether.

He needs me.

A little part of me relived the wonder of his touch on my chin, of his sweet kiss on my lips, and replayed over and over that shocking image, still standing before me, of the tears in his eyes, deepening the blueness therein to the depth of a veritable ocean.

An ocean in which I quite suddenly and with every fiber of my being wanted to fling myself into and drown, so as never to be parted from it.

Ever.

Those blue, damnably blue eyes. Like Sorben's....

He wasn't Sorben...

That lusciously sweet kiss, so like when Sorben's lips first brushed mine, a lifetime ago...

He wasn't Sorben.

The strength in his arms, sending me silent entreaty, like that in Sorben's....

Dammit, he wasn't Sorben!

And thank Khaandon, he never would be.

My eyes widened with this sudden disclosure as, from somewhere deep within my essence a tiny little being ceased waving its arms about, and crossed them in front of itself as if to say, "Well, I FINALLY seem to have captured your attention!"

Now the image of Terrin blurred before me as, tears springing into my own eyes, I turned inward and listened to what that little being was trying to tell me. Had been trying to tell me, for months and months and months.

You know why you left Sorben, don't you Galen? It wasn't because of the baby, nor was it due to the fact that your sister poses such a terrible threat to you and everyone around you...

...everyone you love....

My eyes closed now, tears freely escaping them to wet the lashes and roll unheeding down my own cheeks. Images of Dad, of Jharmeen, of that hideous day on that even more hideous ball of dust and rock; all sped through my head at lightspeed, circling faster and faster like an event horizon whirling about some abyssal black hole... finally spewing out a portion thereof to reveal that black hole for the emptiness it truly represented.

It wasn't too great of a surprise to find that emptiness as being something which had existed within me for a long, long time. A deep-down, soul-encompassing null that Sorben hadn't even come close to filling.

He never needed you. With him, you were a companion, perhaps even an equal. Your days would have been filled with laughter and excitement and adventure. But these things don't satiate a black hole, do they Galen?

My eyes slowly opened, to reveal a blurred image of Terrin before me. He remained silent, some great and overpowering pain clearly evident in every crease of his features. That this pain was so ready to go in either direction at what words I would utter was equally evident.

He needs you. And surprise, surprise... you NEED him to need you, don't you? Together, the two of us can be so much more than the sum of our parts...

...and Oh Khaandon, I want to be whole again!

What a shock to realize I hadn't been whole since that thing killed our father on the Sith world.

And somehow, from the moment you met him, you knew this was the One....

Slowly, that realization brought me back to the reality of the situation at hand. I blinked, trying to bring Terrin into focus. He still stood silently awaiting my answer; Khaandon knows how long I had lost myself in my self-inspection.

Trembling, I reached a hand up, placed it quietly alongside the strong plane of his face. "I won't leave you, Terrin," I murmured softly, scarcely daring to speak the words so fragile was the moment. "I won't, I promise. I need you too, more than I ever thought I would. I--"

I paused, drawing in a breath, suddenly halted in mid-speech when his eyes focused with unspoken insistence upon me. Was suddenly frightened to the core of my being at the next words which were seeking release from my throat. Was lost in the complete incongruity of how quickly they had formed, and from what foundation, in turn so quickly built, but as solid as the very bedrock of the Universe.

"I--I think that I love you, Terrin," she said at last. "I'll do the best to help you in any way I can."

His heart swelled with sudden hope as he was surprised by her reply. No one had ever loved him, not before...not even Shayla. And no one ever wanted to help him...

He dared not speak a word, for he wasn't sure if he could get it out anyway. He savored the feel of her soft hand on his face, and reached one of his own hands up to grasp hers. Keeping her hand in firm grasp, he pulled her in close and wrapped his other hand around her back, kissing her long and full on the lips. After a while they parted although he kept her within his embrace, only breaking it momentarily to wipe the tears from her face with his hand. He looked into her big brown eyes and smiled softly. "I love you," he whispered softly. "And I promise I'll help you too. Our paths seem to be speeding in the same direction, and," he paused, his blue eyes searching her brown ones, "there's no one else I'd rather travel the way with than you."

"Galen," he said, breaking the silence, "I need to make sure you know what is going on here before we go any further."

She tilted her head slightly, then nodded.

He led her back to the couch where they sat facing each other, still hand in hand.

"The woman I've been looking for, Shayla Stargazer, is wanted by Moff Krenoff for uncovering a plan he had to assassinate Admiral Palleon. Eagle Enterprises had built him a few Eclipse-class SSDs in order to build up his fleet for this event and also provided him with a source that would provide the means to carry out the asassination. While the Eclipses where being built, I was on board the Hornett in the Moff's area, assigned to the task of keeping all stray traffic out of the system either by command or by force, whichever was necessary. Shayla's freighter came in system, I tractored it in, and of course told her she'd best leave. Only later did I find out she had a delivery for the Moff, so I released her. This action came to late, however, for Shayla had gotten suspicious of the whole thing because of my involvement. So she uncovered the scheme and the assassination attempt went bust.

When the Moff found out Shayla and I had previously been involved, that I had tractored her freighter the Starlight in, and that this might have triggered her suspicion, he refused to pay Eagle Enterprises the sum for the Eclipses until Shayla was brought to him.

Originally, I agreed to do it because I was mad at her. Later, I continued with it because I wanted to be paid and knew the company would be finished if it was never paid for the parts and labor for those Eclipses.

Now..." his words trailed off as he sorted through what he was thinking. "Well, now I know that I must find a way to save my company, stand up to the Moff, and save Shayla before she is harmed by this Sith or the Moff. My company will never be paid whether I find Shayla or not, I'm almost certain of that. I need you, Galen, to keep me honest. I need you to stand by me when things get rough. And I need you to help me find Shayla. I'm not certain now if I was mad at her because she ruined my dealings with the Moff, or because she came with someone else when I pulled her in on the Hornett. Probably the latter, for I knew then that she had someone, and I was desperately alone. Since I've been with you, Galen...well, that feeling has vanished."

With that, he finished, searching her brown eyes thoughtfully and awaiting her reply to all that he had revealed...

I couldn't help closing my eyes in an instinctive gesture which borderlined self-defense. Somewhere deep within, a tiny hurt sought to well upward, spreading throughout me until it would have me firmly in its grasp, thus provoking me to blat forth with my usual hot retort.

Strangely enough, that tiny little hurt lasted but a hair's-breadth of a moment. It had scarcely begun to form when it's black little heart quite suddenly segued into the surprising entry of common-sense, and POOF! It was gone, leaving me to ponder what Terrin had revealed in an entirely new light.

That light shone with a particular strength upon the final words he had spoken.

Since he had been with me, he no longer felt alone. And neither did I, in his warm presence.

I opened my eyes, a gleam of humor sparkling in their depths, and I actually smiled. I don't think Terrin was quite expecting that; from the look on his face, one would have thought he was somehow expecting me to either tear off his head or something else of greater and more personal value to him... or both.

He blinked in surprise. That only made my smile widen. The fact that his face only lengthened in utterly confused shock made me actually giggle a little.

Sheesh, Galen ol' girl; he's gonna think you've gone hyper-happy or something. Control, control...!

With some effort, I sobered. Then I allowed a quite different smile to warm my face as, reaching out, I cupped his face in my hands.

"What you ever felt for... Shayla," I stumbled only the briefest of moments upon the name, then firmed and continued smoothly on, "I trust is behind you. I mean, if it weren't, I really believe in you enough that you would tell me now... not to mention you would not have told me everything you already have."

I paused, searching his face for a hint of what he was thinking. He remained remarkably inscrutable, considering how blatant he had been with his emotional luggage mere moments before. I drew in a breath, and continued.

"The fact that you told me all this speaks for itself, Terrin, and doesn't change one whit what I feel for you, or my pledge to help you find and rescue Shayla."

If it isn't too late. I frowned at those words, which rose with the smooth unfolding of an uncoiling adder. Then I gritted my teeth, and put that thought aside, suddenly realizing that he wasn't the only one with a history which needed telling.

Only I didn't know if I dared tell him, at this point. I had pledged my assistance, as well as my love. While the latter would go on no matter what happened to me, I knew deep in my very soul that if he knew I was pregnant, he'd have me buried so deeply within the fleet, attended by med-droids and nannies that I'd be lucky to see starlight again for months on end.

The very thought was enough to make me gag. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, promising myself that I would tell him...

...but not until we rescued his ex-interest.

For a little moment my eyes defocused, and I inspected those words. Ex-interest. Then I firmed again, my resolve steady. No matter what he might end up feeling, I knew what I was feeling now. Didn't someone once say, "Better to have loved and lost...?"

He was a complete idiot to pen those words, whoever he was. Had to be a crotchetty old Impy, sheesh...

I cleared my throat. "Umm--" I began uncertainly. "I, uh- I think I can really help you, Terrin, on both counts.

With that, he took her chin in his hand once again, smiling warmly. "I love you Galen, and nothing will change that. Not now, not ever.

I refrained from all that, managing to hold myself to the grin I knew was planted upon my face, and in one smooth motion reached out to wrap my arms about Terrin's broad shoulders. I kneaded them gently, considering the rest of his statement, now that the fireworks regarding the former were finally beginning to quiet down.

Then I sobered, my eyes widening before the intensity of Terrin's gaze as the true import of his last statement sunk in. My choice...

I trembled suddenly, a quick and quite uncontrollable little shiver. I had never been given the choice before, and that freedom was almost too heady to bear. I suddenly wanted more than anything else in the Universe to stay here with him, to stay wrapped up and protected by his warm embrace, to lose myself in his eyes and his grasp and everything that made him who he was; indeed, in that meeting learn even more about who and what he was, as much and as quickly as I could....

I sighed, then smiled. "I- I think I'd better go back to my suites, Terrin. You're right; this has been a very emotional night. I have to sort it all out, too.

"But I'm not at all sorry for any of it. I love you, more than I have ever loved anyone, more than thought I could."

I leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on his lips, closing my eyes and allowing my being to merge with his through that one, incredibly sweet connection. Then I drew back, and rose to my feet.

"I- I guess it's time to get some sleep," I finished somewhat reluctantly. "You're right; I want to be fresh tomorrow to discuss my ideas with you and whoever else needs to hear of them."

I then pulled him to his feet, and snuggled against him. He was so much taller than me; my face was buried somewhere at his chest level. I sighed again into the material of his tunic.

Ah well, buddy, everything has it's own time.

"Let's go," he said, dropping his arms from her then taking her left hand in his right and squeezing it. Together they walked out of the living area, through the door, and down the hall to her quarters. When they were both standing in front of the door, she turned to look at him, and he leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips once more. Their lips parted, and she smiled at him.

"Goodnight, Galen," he said softly. And, relishing the words as they came from his heart, he added, "I love you,"

Even as she progressed forward, she sent a small tendril of her mind behind her, curious to feel what was running through Shayla's mind in her absence. As that tendril entered into the adept's thoughts and unconscious, as silently and stealthily as a transparant gas, she smiled.

Many of the Truths we cling to depend entirely upon our own point of view....

Her smile broadened.

Aye, it would seem her instincts were right. There was yet hope for this One....

As smoothly as she had entered, she withdrew the tendril, bringing it back into her own essence as she quietly moved into the forward section of her ship, and entered the bridge. There she seated herself in the command chair, leaning forward to scrape one nail against a digital sigil.

The forward screen, having darkened in her absence, sprang obediently into vibrant life. There before her, presenting itself as some wondrous ruby amidst myriad smaller diamonds, lay Ambria. Her ship was still in orbit around it, still unnoticed by any ground forces below. How long that state of affairs would continue was at the moment anyone's guess... although Graysith had the ability to actively seek and capture that information. She smiled, deciding not to waste the energy, and concentrated once more on the rotating world beneath her.

Actar is down there, she purred to herself. Him; the One with the odd Power that I sensed...

For another moment she considered the wisdom of "dropping in" and confronting him there, seeking answers regarding the missing Galen. Well she knew that he had once held her in his hands, as well as she knew she had slipped through his fingers.

Then she dismissed the thought with a disdainful snort. For if the "Admiral" had allowed Galen to flee him, what answer could he give her? Indeed, what good were the powers she sensed about him at all, if so slight and small a quarry had escaped him with such ease?

Graysith then leaned forward in preparation of breaking orbit, mulling over the virtues of taking her adept to Khar Delba for further training, when her attention was captured by a small green light which quite suddenly began to blink on her control panel.

She touched the light gently with one finger, and upon the forward screen the image of Ambria was smoothly replaced with the ominous form of one of her seeker-droids. It's red lens glowed with a hellish light, as with some hideous instinct it persisted in clattering its grasping claws together, over and over again in a mantra to accompany the transmission it was now sending:

Preez ne'l a frzzna... grbbd d' n'latt. Preez ne'l a frzzna... grbbd d' n'latt...

Over and over the coded transmission came, until its odd babble was finally silenced as Graysith acknowledged its receipt. The red light faded in the seeker's lensed eye, as with a final small burble, it turned to hum its way back to her ship.

Graysith sat back in her command seat, her eyes black. A smile of equal darkness then slowly began to spread upon her face.

I have you now.... she thought out into the Void as in a series of graceful movements her fingers danced upon the navboard, plotting in a new course away from the planet.

The strangely greeny-golden little ship, its form so difficult to look upon, its overall geometries something not quite of this Galaxy, performed an impossible little maneuver. Then it plummetted out of its Ambrian orbit, bee-lining toward a remote and unassuming little portion of Spacetime, where there hovered a fleet of magnificent ships.

Which, in spite of their combined power and strength and armament, were in comparison to her ship less than a mote in the eye of some distant and quite uncaring god.

Shayla wondered where they were headed. In fact, she wondered where in the galaxy they were to begin with. She wasn't sure, hadn't thought of it, and suddenly felt strangely disoriented.

He loved.

He'd never loved before.

She needed him.

No one had ever needed him before.

He needed her.

He'd never admitted that to anyone before.

He felt happier than he ever had in his whole life...

And he never wanted that to change.

He knew that this one woman had changed him so much in the small time frame that he had known her, and he marveled over what a significant impact she'd already had. Before he'd met her on Ambria, he'd been full of hate and desired nothing but vengeance. He'd shut the galaxy out and kept it at a distance. He'd even entertained the idea of using evil to get what he wanted.

Only now what he had wanted in the past he no longer desired at all. He just wanted to be with her, and he wanted to become the person that he knew he should have become long ago. And he wanted to be with her. His smile broadened as he thought of her features: her small figure...her red hair...her big brown eyes...

Before the piercing inner gaze of the Chosen Daughter, opening pathways announced themselves with an abrupt infusion of Light coming into her being. These pathways seemed to come from differing directions, but all were heading toward a convergence upon another mote of light, one which glowed with a brilliance striving to equal her own as it sought increased capacitance from her own tremendous energy stores.

If it were possible to smile and frown at the same time, Graysith would doing that very thing. She was more than well pleased to discover a growing eagerness Shayla appeared to be revealing to her at a steadily increasing rate, an eagerness to learn about her and of the great Powers she held but could not totally command.

But to what end does this one really wish to learn of my ways? Graysith allowed the disturbing little question to niggle forth. Although I could easily rip into her mind to discern this, I do not wish to do so.

But why?

Now the frown took dominance as she pondered that particular branch of the pathway her mind had started upon. The frown deepened a bit as in following that path, she found a little by-pass, which led her directly to the three in-coming modes of emergence and directly back to the smaller shining mote once more.

Alevedaar.

An image of a powerfully built and magnificently horned humanoid burst into her mind, his volcanic eyes glowing with a strange molten satisfaction as he reached out one clawed hand in a sweeping gesture to take into account all that was now being laid before her gaze. A small smile threatened to banish her growing frown as this image brought a sudden flash of past effort to the fore.

Once I was so smug to "see" where the path of but one led him, and to that end found the means to alter it completely. Once I was then so chastined by the One who is my love and Sire, as he contrasted for me the extent of that which I hold against the extent of that which I may command. One can be handled; the convergence of myriad paths needs a stronger touch than I have.

Even as now he is showing me this convergence... and reminding me of my place within it.

And hers as well.

Graysith's violet eyes slowly opened as she contemplated that which had been revealed to her in that moment, revealed so effortlessly by a being light-years distant, and hidden as well in that special little spot that marks one second of Spacetime from the next.

Three converging paths:

Galen, and the one with her, Terrin Danner.

A new warrior, coming with the male called Yaoksi, within whose mind she had dabbled as a child with sand upon a shore. One of the pair extremely strong in the Light, one just as strong in his convictions.

Yet three others coming; not the original third prong in the trident, but as sharp and potentially deadly to her purpose. One hovering behind them all, yet still attached...

and all pathways merging toward a nexus who stood with a firm conviction Graysith, for reasons she had yet to examine too closely, yet refused to truly dissect.

With a little sigh she brought her focus back from deep inside herself, and looked to where Shayla was still standing respectfully behind her, hoping for an answer to a question so simple, yet so fraught with dark possibilities and uncertain conclusions.

She smiled fully, the Glyph on her forehead flaring out in wondrous energy as, rising to her feet she reached out a hand to the younger woman.

"Where are we going?" she repeated the question softly. "My young adept: we are going to seek Truth amidst Chaos and Fear.

"Even if it means the destruction of those who would stay our hand."

He needed me. He needed ME....

I was positive the smile on my face broadened into an even more sappy one as I turned around and leaned my back against the door. I was even more aware of the fact that I was acting like a love-stricken schoolgirl, totally dismissive of the logic that from somewhere deep inside was trying to point out the fact that Galen, you hardly know the guy; Galen, you haven't been with him long enough to begin knowing him, much less fall in love with him.

To all the above I directed a loud mental raspberry. I simply didn't care. There are times when things happen in the Universe which are indeed beyond one's logic or ken. And at those times, wise beings know not to battle against them, but to simply go with their flow.

I was flowing so much at this point that its a wonder I didn't puddle into a little pool of ooze right there on the carpet.

Still smiling, I floated to the 'fresher, and let myself bask once again in it's steamy water, supplanting in my mind the feel of the warm spray with Terrin's equally warm touch. Towelling myself dry, I proceeded to that glitzy armoire from whose ample interior I extracted a simple yet elegant sleeping gown. Donning it with a sudden yawn, I headed to the luxurious bed the suite provided, pulled back the sumptuous covers, and burrowed within them Snuggling a bit, I then gave short-term memory full rein, and allowed it to replay the events of this wondrous night over again, word for word.

Before me once more I saw Terrin's strong face, heated with a passion he refused to give in to, tears glinting in his eyes as he made that surprising proclamation: "I need you to help me redeem myself..." followed soon thereafter by the even more satisfying phrase, "I love you." His blue eyes gazing deeply and firmly into my own, clear want showing there, yet existing side-by-side with respect for me and remarkable restraint and self-control. That same penetrating gaze, revealing more than did the mere words he spoke in telling me everything about Shayla.

His blue eyes... sequeing into another blue pair....

I sighed a little, shifting about in the bed. Sorben. I had to tell Terrin about him; I mean, it was only fair. He had told me of Shayla, and that small storm had been easily weathered. With sudden assurety, I knew this would be weathered with equal ease. For another moment I let my gaze turn inward, inspecting the sudden wonder of the complete lack of hurt within me as I spoke Sorben's name to myself.

What we had shared together had been like a supernova. It had flared into overwhelming brilliance, the power of its touch indomitable, barrelling over the two of us and scorching us into one searing image which remained... as long as that exotic event existed. Yet supernovae result in the collapse of the parent star, sometimes into the complete non-existence of an anomaly. They are indeed short-lived beasties...

What I now sensed springing into life between Terrin and me, that light by which he shone, was instead more like a typical star. The solid, dependable Type-G variety, which burn steadily far longer than their explosive brethren, long enough to create and succor life on their little rings of worlds.

Life....

I could feel my mouth slacken drowsily as these pleasant thoughts led me through the brilliance of starfire, and toward a velvety blackness which beckoned beyond it. The wondrous images of stellar coronas swirled out to embrace me, entwining me in a golden aura that was no more lustrous than the gold of Terrin's hair, and carried me down and down toward the very surface from which they had sprung. A surface whose light now dimmed into a lesser heat and thus more sustaining comfort, that gentled me closer and closer...

...Deepening now, traversing the electromagnetic spectrum...

...following rainbow colors therein, which lie in the heart of every star...

...darkening further, imperceptibly blending from bright golden yellows into deep russet oranges and tiptoeing into the vividly deep umbers of far infared...

...which sequed impossibly into a stark and blazing ultraviolet.

A brilliance which coalesced into a pair of viscious eyes that laughed....

I sat bolt upright in my bed, my eyes staring, my heart pounding inexplicably in my chest.

NO!

Beyond thought, acting on pure animal instinct, I rolled off the bed and flew to the door, slamming against the release button en route, the timing such that I scarcely had to slow as I took off from my suite and fled, half-blinded yet by sleep, away from a night-terror I couldn't even explain but knew was very, very real.

Fled thus toward the only haven I knew of. Or wanted.

Quite suddenly I found myself fully awake, somehow not surprised to see I was once again outside Terrin's door, pounding frantically upon it for all I was worth.

Probably some stupid maintainance man trying to fix something in the middle of the night, Terrin thought irritably. He rolled over on his stomach and covered his head with his pillow.

It wasn't helping either. Damn it all!

In a fit of anger, Terrin sat up, throwing the covers to the end of the bed. He stood, grabbed his nightrobe and threw it on almost as an afterthought, and then headed for the door. In the darkeness of his chambers, however, he'd forgotten where he had thrown his boots, and realized where they were only after he'd stubbed his toe on one of them. "Sithspit, Oww!" he yelled, momentarily removing his foot from the floor til his toe stopped throbbing a little. It was then he realized the rapping was coming from his door, and not somewhere else.

Who the hell was knocking at this time of night? Terrin wondered, his eyes narrowing momentarily. At last he proceeded to the door, calming himself and limping slightly, his toe still sore.

He unlocked the door using the keypad, and it slid open, revealing...Galen.

He looked down at her, her red hair still slightly wet from the shower she must have taken and dressed in a pale blue silk nightgown that nearly reached the floor. Terrin worked his jaw, which was threatening to drop to the floor again. Then he noticed the worry in her face, and his look of awe turned to one of at least equal concern. "Galen...what's wrong?"

Oh sheesh! These autohatches can just go to Hell's Seventh Circle, they open so abruptly!

As it was, I managed to regain my balance, and stood before him, the hand I was pounding upon the door with held up like a banner. Then, fear and worry uppermost in my mind, totally disregarding the fact that Terrin at least was garbed in a robe while I stood practically vulnerable in my nightgown, I hurried past him into his quarters. I made it all the way to the couch I had earlier perched so blissfully upon before I heard the whoosh as the door closed behind me.

I whirled to face him, my mouth working in synchronization with his own. Nothing came out.

Tears of terror mingled with utter frustration flooded my eyes, as I felt my chest constrict into a tight little knot.

Galen, steady... hold it together, he doesn't need hysterics, tell him calmly what you came here to divulge, steady...

Near-hysterics won out. Usually I'm stronger than this, but dear Khaandon this man I so suddenly and so deeply loved really hadn't one clue about the strength of the Evil we were up against. I blinked quickly with the realization that my near-hysterics were based not upon fear for myself, but for him. And for the fact that he also hadn't a clue why that Evil was chasing after me with a persistence likened to the very Hounds of Hell.

I let my knees give way and release me to the couch. There I sat for a moment, the flooding tears now spilling from my eyes and rolling down my cheeks, my hands working the fabric into sweaty little lumps.

"Terrin, I'm afraid!" I finally blurted, staring up at him. A part of me acknowledged the concern and worry that was taking over his own features as he strode toward me. But the majority of my vision was turned inward, beyond him, seeing only blazing violet and searing flame and a cloak of rune-encrypted smoke that swirled with a sultry seduction that promised things too awful to contemplate upon those who chose to approach it...

...or foolishly let it approach them. Or her, rather. Me.

I scarcely felt Terrin's presence when he joined me on the couch; hardly noticed the fact that he had his arms around me. His repeated question of, "Galen, what's wrong?" fell on deaf ears as I continued to look blankly inward, knowing that inward perusal was indeed being brought outward to a hideous reality that I also knew would join with us all too soon.

The images playing there were simply too awful to bear alone. With a choked little garble, I turned my head, pressing my face into Terrin's strong chest, my hands now grasping him with a ferocity bordering upon sheer desperation. As if the strength of that grip would keep him with me forever. Words I didn't even know I was saying started pouring from my mouth, words muffled by Terrin's body, but words he could clearly discern nevertheless.

Words I was so terribly frightened would drive him away from me.

"Oh Khaandon Terrin, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I should have told you the whole story, but I didn't! It's her, Terrin, she's here! I know it, I can feel it; she's close, very close! She's coming for me, I know that, and now you're in danger too..."

I paused for a deeply shaky breath, pulling my face away from where it had burrowed against Terrin, and turned it up into his own. My eyes widened further yet, silently seeking understanding and forgiveness.

If this turned him away from me, I would never forgive myself. But not to the extent of the guilt I would live with should he die by Her hand...

"She's coming for me, and not simply because I keep eluding her. Terrin, she's pure Evil, she's powerful! She's so strong I don't know if anyone or anything can withstand her. I've managed to escape her clutches, but never for good, she keeps finding me. I somehow keep managing to stay one jump ahead of her... but she's like a Noghri, Terrin. I know her; she won't stop until she's got me... and everyone around me is dead."

I paused for a moment, turning my gaze now down and away from Terrin's face, afraid of what I would read there. I continued then, not daring to look up.

"There was a man I loved... or at least thought that I did. A bounty hunter, Sorben Tarnus. I-- I left him because of her, because I was afraid of what she would do to him. Because at the time she believed him to be important to me.

"He was. Then. But now I realize what I felt was nothing like what I feel for you. I love you, and I don't want anything to happen to you. But I'm afraid something will happen--"

I choked off the sentence before its completion, now looking up directly into his blue gaze, my own eyes wide with silent pleading. Drawing in a deep breath, I managed to continue on, stating the conclusion to my soliloquy in a choking whisper.

"She's coming for me because she once carried a child, one that was probably even more powerful than she is. But she lost this child. And I was the cause of her losing it."

So this Sith is after her? Terrin buddy, the little devil on one shoulder yelled in his ear, What are you doing? Haven't you been listening to me?

But there was a funny thing about the little devil this time. In times past, the little guy yelled loudly, and he usually won out. This time, his yell was a mere whisper and Terrin could nearly see himself reaching up a hand and knocking the wicked fellow off his shoulder. He would have laughed at the thought, had the situation allowed it.

Terrin, you're really in love.

"I know her," Galen said, "she won't stop until she's got me... and everyone around me is dead."

Something flashed from within him with these words...was that anger? He had to fight with all his soul to keep from blurting out that maybe someone should stop her first, but he somehow managed.

"There was a man I loved... or at least thought that I did. A bounty hunter, Sorben Tarnus. I-- I left him because of her, because I was afraid of what she would do to him. Because at the time she believed him to be important to me.

He was. Then. But now I realize what I felt was nothing like what I feel for you. I love you, and I don't want anything to happen to you. But I'm afraid something will happen--"

Galen paused there, and a brief tendril of jealousy shot through Terrin at the mention of someone who meant so much to her once. But with her assurance that she loved him and with the realization that he had done just about the same to her only a little while before when he told her of Shayla, the jealousy faded into nothingness.

Galen looked up at him once again, her deep brown eyes still damp from the tears and full of worry and pleading. "She's coming for me because she once carried a child, one that was probably even more powerful than she is. But she lost this child. And I was the cause of her losing it."

Oh, woah, Terrin thought, his eyes widening only slightly with her admittance. This woman, the woman now love, has far more power than you ever will. What makes you think you can protect her? Seems she can stay a step ahead herself.

A flicker of concern about not being good enough for Galen passed through Terrin's mind, but he pushed it aside. But she is here, with you now. She came to you for support, she came to you for consolation. And she's told you the truth. She loves you too, and that's all that counts.

He'd known he wanted to be with her for a while now, even though it had been a short amount of time since he'd known her. Now he was even more certain, regardless of the risks, that he wanted to be with her always. Terrin thought it odd that in the situations when he would have most likely backed out before he was becoming more certain of his feelings for Galen instead.

All the stuff, all the history, all the risks, all the past...it just didn't matter. He didn't have any words for her, not yet. She sat in front of him, her eyes seeking within his for a sign of...hope? He wondered how long he'd been sitting there, thinking through everything that had been revealed.

He focused his his on her deep brown ones, and said softly, "I guess I'm not the only one with a nasty history."

She blinked, but a flicker of hope flashed across her eyes.

She's worried I'm going to back out on her because of this, Terrin realized.

"My feelings aren't going to change, no matter what is in the past, or what's in the future. All I know is what I feel now. I love you, and I want to be with you..."

He paused, gazing into her eyes and noticing the wonder within them. Then he understood that what he'd just started to stay he hadn't finished completely. He thought back to the words that he'd already said and the completion of the phrase that he inteded to speak, and discovered that, unlike in the past, he had no fear in uttering it.

"Galen...I want to be with you...forever."

He wanted to be with me forever...

As those words hit, they brought with them a responding certainty that I too never wanted to leave him. Ever.

Beginning to tremble, I reached a hand up to his face. The trembling intensified when he caught it up, and brought it to his lips. All the while his blue eyes continued to pierce mine, washing away the terrors, washing away the trepidation, eliminating the fear that he would use this as an extremely justifiable excuse to dump me on the nearest planet and hotfoot it across the Galaxy.

"I--I couldn't stand to be without you either, Terrin." The words whispered from my lips like the sighing of a distant sea-breeze. "I want to be with you the rest of my life, and I want this more than I've ever wanted anything."

I sniffed a little, digging deeply within myself for that inner core of strength I knew was there. Was still there, and would really always be there, no matter how my baser instincts might make me react to any threatening situation...

...such as this one.

I sat up straighter, firming, gaining even greater fortitude with the realization that this man would adhere to my side like a rock-limpet, and would not run from me no matter what would happen.

Only Death would divide us; I knew that with a conviction stemming from the bottom of my soul.

I drew in a deep breath, allowing myself to smile just a bit before I continued on.

"I really don't know how we're going to stop her, Terrin. I don't think there's any place I can hide. I keep telling you how strong she is; Terrin, she commands Noghri! You know the Noghri have long since retaliated against the Sith, and that they will have nothing to do with them any longer.

"I don't think she's really the kind of Sith history has shown us. I don't really know what in Hell's Seven Circles she is! But I do know that she's very powerful, and that normal weapons aren't gonna do diddly against her. We're gonna have to come up with some sort of an idea, and fast, if we're gonna get your friend away from her in one piece.

"Not to mention keep me in one piece away from her as well."

Instinct threatened to command me once again, and I struggled to keep from throwing myself into his arms. I lapsed into momentary silence, giving him the opportunity to offer any advice or suggestion, quietly waiting to hear what he might say...

...when it hit me with the impact of an SSD.

Once again it was all I could do to keep from flinging my arms about him. I couldn't keep the sudden sparkle from my eye, however, nor hold back the exhalation of utter relief which burst forth from me.

"Terrin!" Ok, so I got a lil excited. Heh... guess he'd better find out about this side of me, too. Spurred by the sound of his name on my lips, I sprang to my feet. He nearly pitched onto his face; I overlooked the fact that he was still holding my hand to his lips. Oops...

I smiled an apology, then continued quickly before he thought he had fallen in love with a madwoman.

"Terrin!" I repeated, "I forgot! Remember when I said I knew how to help you, and how that could save your company? Well, I wasn't exaggerating. I know where there is, well... to call it a weapon, per se, is perhaps stretching things a bit.

"But I know where there are ships that harbor power you've never seen. That can do things you'd never imagine. That I think just might be useful to us in this.

"They might have enough power to overcome her. Hell's Seven Circles, they ought to.

"They're Sith. And I know how to pilot them."

"I'll have the fleet set course for this location tomorrow morning," he said anxiously.

Then he realized...here they were, again. Suddenly, his face flushed hot as he finally admitted to himself that he didn't want to let her go even now. He let go of her hands and began pacing a small piece of the living area floor near her.

She watched him, curiously. She probably thinks you're off your rocker, buddy. You might as well come clean. Suddenly, he turned once again to face her, and took her left hand in his right. Come clean, but respect her space, he told himself.

"Galen, I want you to stay with me now more than even before. I love you, and I want to be with you. But, this has happened all so quickly, and so many emotions have been felt..." he paused, pondering the right words to say, but nothing else came to mind. I'm just not good at this, he thought to himself. I don't want to push don't want to risk it...don't want to move too fast if she doesn't want to...

He never finished the sentence. Instead he gazed into her big eyes, those beautiful brown eyes, and waited...

...if not the main course on the menu.

My mouth dropped open a bit, as thoughts sped through my mind at breakneck speed.

Didn't he hear what I said? I was talking about maybe a way of saving this Shayla... about maybe saving my own skin... about maybe gaining victory in what at first glanced appeared to be entirely too hopeless a battle....

The I realized I wasn't quite hearing what he was saying myself. Or rather, not saying. I gulped as this realization slammed home, bringing with it another bout of trembling which washed over me in great waves that refused to abate.

But this time the trembling wasn't springing into being out of fear.

Suddenly, I knew he was asking what he was because he was placing me, placing us, before and above anything else that could possibly exist in the Universe. Absolutely nothing, no danger, no riches, no adventure, could possibly hold a candle to that great one he was seeking to explore with me. Yet somehow... it was as though he needed something cemented deeply within himself... and for some reason, I alone could provide him with the mortar he needed.

My eyes were positively huge in my head as I stared into his, falling into them, knowing what I would answer, as well as knowing he knew it before I was aware of it myself.

That's how close we had come to be in so short a timespan. And, I reminded myself, a timespan that ought to be considered more precious than gold. For even though I believed the Sith ships on that planet Dad had found would be the answer to our prayers, there was really no guarantee that they would. This might be the only real time we would have together for a long time to come... if not forever.

I felt my eyes grow huger yet, and everything within me blurred and softened as, in response to the unvocalized affirmative, Terrin took one small step forward and gathered me into his arms.

As he watched her, he noticed her eyes grow large, as though she was suddenly understanding the importance of his words, and the depth of his need for her to be with him now. His need for her? He'd told her he needed her, and he'd even admitted it within to himself. But, til this point in which he'd voiced his desire to have her with him, he'd not admitted his need out loud to himself. And now, without the slightest hesitation or difficulty, he'd spoken it. And it felt good.

He smiled at this realization and continued gazing at Galen. He read in her body language that she, without saying a word, was understanding the same thing herself. She knew they belonged together, and she knew that with the dangers they would certainly face, the time was now.

All hesitations pushed to the side and all concerns for the near future in the farest corner of his mind, Terrin stepped in, took her in his arms, and she yielded to him.

And he knew with more certainty than ever that each of them, though apart were two halves, together, created a wonderful and complete whole.

But that was the catch. People were coming for her. Ever since the Force and been uncovered from wherever it had been so perfectly hdden from her, Shayla had known this. She'd known it in the form of Erik Kartan, who had reached out to her and even spoken to her through the Force. She'd known it in the forms of Jeroc, Cella, and Logan, whose minds she knew were there, and searching for hers. She'd felt the touch of Thea constantly, and from time to time she even reached out to assure her that she was allright.

But was she allright? Did she really even understand the levity of what she was doing? Certainly if she was here to learn and understand what Graysith believed in, she would eventually have to demonstrate that understand.

A bit of worry flashed through Shayla's mind, but as quickly as it came it was pushed to the furtherest corner of her mind.

They were coming for her, but they had waited too long. Where were they when she couldn't reach them? Where were they when she was on the Sith shuttle floating above what must have been Yavin IV, back in the beginning? Why had they waited so long to seek her out? They were too late, she'd made her choice. There was no turning from it now.

Truth amongst Fear and Chaos...even if it means destroying those who might stay our hand...

Those who might stay our hand? Shayla knew the meaning of the words, and truthfully, they did cause her concern. Alas, that was they way things were for the time, and she could only hope when the time came she could do the right thing.

Smiling shyly, Shayla accepted the hand that had been offered to her.

What the right thing would be, when that time came, Shayla was more than a little unsure about...

A short yet somehow intensely awkward moment stretched endlessly between them. At length it was broken by the silken sound of the Chosen Daughter's musical voice. The words she uttered were pitched low, almost in a whisper.

"My young One," she began, dropping Shayla's hand and leaning comfortably back in her navseat. "May I ask your opinion of something?"

She paused, waiting for her "sister's" affirmative nod, which came obediently, just as she had expected it to. With a wave of her slim hand, she indicated Shayla take a seat beside her. Then she continued, her gaze now focusing out the forward viewscreen into the Otherness which raged beyond.

"Let me tell you a story, my young Adept. A story of a race of beings, strong, powerful, endowed with incredible magicks. Beings who governed the Galaxy with a strong yet equitable hand. Beings who kept immaculate Order amidst early Chaos, who sought only to eliminate Fear.

"Yet, beings of a civilization that, responding over Time as does any strong and powerful one, eventually found itself traveling a road a bit less immaculate. A bit more branched with by-passes and side-paths. A race who then was suddenly betrayed by the very Galaxy it had governed as, in one fell swoop and via a coward's invasion, it was eliminated in its entirety practically overnight.

"Whose very self was thus supplanted by those invaders. Not merely destroyed; stolen. Whose rightful destiny, whatever that may have been, was denied in that grand theft.."

She paused for a moment, turning from the viewscreen to pin Shayla's gaze with her own, once again seeming to seek something within their warm and curious depths before, leaning forward with sudden intensity, she continued on.

"And what if you had it within you to restore those Lost to their former and rightful place in the Universe? Even if in that restoration another being had to forfeit it's life?"

The idea was, Shayla had to admit, enticing. But suddenly the red flag that had been waving around in her brain surfaced once again. Including the fact that the death of some being or some race was an issue, a couple of other things were of key importance that Shayla felt she needed to know.

First of all, she felt Graysith's words were a bit cryptic. She didn't know this race that was being referred to, and furthermore felt that the crypticism was purposeful, as though Graysith was somehow shielding the complete truth from her. Shayla didn't like this, and had always been one to collect all the data before making a decision. She needed to know more.

But more importantly, allowing herself to draw into the attractiveness of power and importance was something she had been taught all along to avoid, and something that she knew could be very dangerous. Shayla wanted to help Graysith, and felt she truly wanted Shayla's help, but at what cost?

Shayla knew she was trapped. She suddenly felt small in the scrutinizing gaze of her teacher. Now was not the time to give in to fear and uncertainty though, for as soon as she declined the offer presented her she was almost certain she would be cast into the nothingness again, or something even worse.

Hang in there Shayla, we're coming, a familiar voice echoed in her brain.

There is nothing, Shayla thought back to him, Nothing at all you can do to stop what will most certainly happen. I alone have control of it. CAN'T YOU ALL JUST TRUST ME? You weren't there for me before, so why suddenly now?

Surprised at her flash of anger, Shayla calmed herself. There is no emotion, only the Force. She knew she had phased out for a while, and she knew that Graysith was expecting an answer even still.

"I cannot be certain of my answer without all the facts, my sister. I have come to you seeking knowledge and understanding and friendship. You are giving me the knowledge, and I truly want to understand this that you are telling me and to know the truth, to see things from all angles. That will take time. You have given me friendship as well, for you have provided me shelter and given me respect. But, by the same token, you once threw me into darkness when I chose to stick to what I believed. I misjudged you then, so is it not possible that you too misjudged me, and by not telling me the full truth now misjudge me still?"

She fought against the rising tide of anger bordering on disgust. Not one inkling of a suggestion of this did she let loose; her features remained calm save for the Glyph, which burst quite suddenly into radiant life upon her brow. After quietly regarding Shayla for a moment longer, she finally spoke.

"By the very words of your mouth have I justification for my judgement of you," she said in a deathly tone of voice. "How eager you are to seek that which you think I hold, that which you think may indeed somehow fulfill you. How defiantly does the Student stand up to her Teacher, who only asked a question of her regarding a hypothetical situation. If facts I thought you needed, they would have been supplied you."

She paused for another moment, fixing Shayla with her penetrating violet stare Then she leaned suddenly forward, deadly earnest.

"The potential to achieve True Fulfillment not only lives within you, Shayla; it lives within every being. Remember the fruit, and the blarnworm. I believe that, even though at the time you mis-spoke, you were striving to see beyond the superficial, beyond the obvious. This is a potential which indeed is difficult to achieve. But it is a potential which cannot be achieved until one truly ceases to see in in shades of black and white, and stops seeking to understand the Universe by viewing it from the standpoint of its common polarities.

"But for now, the small minds in this particular Universe persist in their dichotomous ways. And as long as they persist in this, then my destiny has chance of seeing fruition. But this is a way which, in the end, shall indeed come to an end. And it is frightening to those who do not understand."

With a graceful movement, Graysith turned to her navboard, played upon the mysterious sigils and digital runes there. Before her seat, the forward viewscreen seemed to waver, as though the non-space beyond the little ship had somehow lurched. Then the howling white nothingness abruptly resolved itself into a velvety canopy, liberally sprinkled with stars.

And studded with not more than a few ships.

She sat back in her seat, pursing her lips as her brow crinkled in thought. Then she turned to her young padawan-cum-adept with a smile, one slim hand waving toward the screen to encompass the view it obediently revealed to them.

"There are those out there who have sought you, Shayla. Indeed, here there is one who appears may finally have found you. But now my question to you is, who is it that has been found, Shayla? Indeed, do you wish at all to be liberated from me?

"My destiny is an assurety. Yours yet stands bisected before you. While I would indeed desire a... companion to assist me along my path, I freely leave that choice entirely up to you."

Student and Teacher? And yet by the same token Graysith had called her sister? Which was it?

Shayla felt rather like a school girl who had asked the wrong question in class and was being reprimanded for it. Had she mistaken the desire for this woman to have companionship and help for her need to have authority over another being?

This thought was pushed to the furtherest corner of Shayla's mind when, to her utter shock, the shuttle came out of hyperspace into...Terrin Danner's fleet...

Her mind was spinning. What were they doing here? What was she about to be asked to do? How had it come to this?

"There are those out there who have sought you, Shayla. Indeed, here there is one who appears may finally have found you."

So Terrin Danner was after her even still? Even after she had left for the Praxeum? Shayla was about to give into the anger that was welling up inside her when she realized something else.

He was there, aboard the Hornett as usual. His surroundings she could not make out, but his Force-signature was all too familiar. And he was strangely but certainly at calm peace. Shayla couldn't explain it, but suddenly she wished the man no harm. Harm he would certainly encounter if she didn't do something to stop it.

"But now my question to you is, who is it that has been found, Shayla? Indeed, do you wish at all to be liberated from me?

"My destiny is an assurety," Graysith continued. "Yours yet stands bisected before you. While I would indeed desire a...companion to assist me along my path, I freely leave that choice entirely up to you."

Did she wish to be liberated? Into the hands of Terrin Danner, certainly not. But that niggling in her mind persisted. She certainly had control of her own destiny, and choosing this path with Graysith might ultimately be the most dangerous. But could she honestly trust him? And could she honestly believe that if she left here alive she wouldn't be pursued to the ends of the universe?

Certainly, she wanted to understand what Graysith was about, and what she intended to accomplish. Shayla had a love for knowledge, and a willingness to go to the corners of the galaxy to help another being.

Maybe that was her mistake. Maybe Graysith really didn't need her at all. But there was a definite desire for sisterhood.

With sudden clarity, Shayla realized that this was, in fact, a test. A test to which she had no clue what the right answer was.

Wait, a little voice in her mind said, Maybe there is, in fact, no right answer to the question at all. Reach into your heart, Shayla Stargazer Petrolu, and answer that which is the truth according to you...

"I do wish," Shayla answered finally, "to learn and understand. But likewise I feel as though I'm in a world I do not completely trust. I am not the same Shayla that I was before, but even so I miss my roots. Still, to be released into the hands of this man whose character I am very uncertain, I don't desire."

That being said, Shayla waited for Graysith's reply...

"Ssso-oo-oo..." the syllable came like the susurration of an adder's hiss. "Once you reached for my extended hand... but only to escape the Elseness into which you had been placed. Now you reach yet again... but to avoid this One who waits without."

She paused, striding quickly forward until she was directly in front of the startled Shayla. The movement swift and sure, she reached out, gripping Shayla's chin in one cool hand. She leaned in close, closer yet, until her lips were millimeters away from Shayla's ear.

"So far you divulge that which you do NOT desire. What is it that you do? Look deeply within yourself; what is it that you discover to be there?

"I believe I have found the answer...."

Abruptly, she pulled back, dropping her hand, turning to approach her command seat once more. She seated herself gracefully upon it, played upon the communications glyphs, sending forth hailing frequencies in a loud and fearless proclamation. Her voice was silken, yet laden with such darkness that behind her, it was all that Shayla could do to keep from bolting from the bridge.

"Mr. Danner," Graysith announced sweetly. "This is... Chosen One. I believe I have someone here, and you there, over which certain... negotiations must be entertained.

"I suggest you entertain me in this, Mr. Danner. I give you 15 standard minutes to respond."

Sitting back, the Chosen Daughter closed the connection. She smiled to herself, knowing the commotion that was probably raging aboard the Hornett and its accompanying ships. Now reaching out a slim hand, she played about with certain sigils, and in the doing made her little ship absolutely impregnable to probes of any sort.

"What is it that I want?" she asked, not realizing she was nearly yelling. Graysith's glare became deeper. I'm going to regret this, Shayla thought. [i]What was it that she desired deep within herself? Well...[i]

Taking a deep breath and calming the raging storm within, Shayla spoke again. "There is a man...a man that I love very much. Someone...whom I place alot of trust in. Lately, I've questioned his feelings for me. I've felt so very, very alone. Very...alone..." Trailing momentarily, Shayla fought the tears that were coming even so. "I thought he had left me...thought he had forgotten me. But he is out there even still, and I've felt him with me." Shayla smiled briefly, thinking of his Force-touch on her mind.

"My desire, ultimately, is to be with him."

For a full five minutes she remained thus, the Beast within howling for blood, scrabbling and clawing and demanding sustenance it knew she could provide. At length the inner storm could be borne no longer. A thin black tendril reached in to whip the slavering quasi-animal into submission, then inverted itself, seeking to lash out beyond her inner psyche.

With a great effort she held it back, pinning Shayla with her gaze. Finally she spoke, her voice as icy as her frozen eyes.

"So be it. I see that I have erred; I thought you were a strong one. But one-sided perceptions still overwhelm your visions; the True Strength of the All would ever elude you, as would it elude those you call 'jedi,' with whom you really desire to be."

Graysith paused, drew in a deep breath, then threw out her arm in an imperious manner. "MwonBo'o!" the call rang out harshly, ringing throughout the ship and stabbing into the very core of Shayla's being. "Assist me!"

Mere seconds passed until the great tuk'ata clattered to her side. There he butted his head against her leg, offering her his great strength and loyalty. Mistress in need of This One being? he purred into her mind.

She reached down a slim hand to stroke his head. "See this...Padawan to her quarters, my pet, and see to it that she remains there."

Then, utterly dismissing them both, she turned back to her chair, sat down upon it, and waited for a response from the Hornett. But even as she waited, an unbidden thought crossed her mind in complete and surprising defiance of all that had just occurred:

You would no longer have found yourself alone with me....

But then he remembered why he was awoken the first time, as he realized there was a warm body near him. That would have made him smile, but now he was positive there were alarms sounding.

Suddenly, Galen sat bolt upright, an obvious flash of fear that he could see even in the darkness crossing her soft features.

"What is it?" he asked her, sitting up himself and trying to brush his blonde hair down with one hand.

"We gotta get out of here!" Galen said in a hushed whisper.

He wanted to ask why, but he had a bad feeling he'd know soon enough. Quickly, he got out of bed and threw on his robe and wandered across the room into the closet where he retreived some slippers and put them on his feet. With the same quickness, he came over to Galen, and extended a hand.

"We gotta go to the command deck, now," he told her.

As fast as he had moved she arose and got ready to leave. In only a few moments, his hand in hers and him slightly ahead of her, they were scurrying down the hallway to the main deck.

Terrin knew what it looked like. And everyone would be right. But he didn't care. Finding out the what the hell was going on was far more important.

By the time they hit deck, Matt Stanza, likewise dressed in a robe and looking half awake spotted Terrin and nearly ran to him, almost crashing into him. "Terrin, there's some strange shuttle out there. We don't know what the hell it is. And we can't scan it," the redheaded man blurted, obviously scared out of his mind. "It's hailing...you...says she has something you are looking for and wishes to...negotiate..." he ended, making an apparent effort to calm himself down.

Negotiate? If negotiations involved what he thought they might, this wasn't going to be a very pleasant discussion, for he would not yield. Terrin looked over at Galen questioningly, and she returned a more than petrified look at him.

Well, whatever it was out there, he'd HAVE to comply at least initially. Not responding to the enemy was generally a bad move. Although he was fairly certain this enemy was, in fact, Galen's Sith and Shayla's captor. But what the hell was he going to do?

"Matt," he said, his voice completely and utterly calm and hiding any fear but yet still betraying an edge of ice, "Start caculations for a jump into hyperspace to anywhere but here and have them locked in all shuttles and ready for use. Also, open me a comm channel with this...shuttle. If whomever is aboard that shuttle wants to talk, talk we shall."

With that order, Matt hurried off, and Terrin turned to look at Galen once again, sending an unasked question that he knew she'd hear regardless. What are we going to do?

Roughly, but without a hand or a paw ever being laid on her, Shayla was escorted back to her room, and pushed into it. The door slammed, this time locking. And she knew it guarded the door, and watched her every thought.

Every hope Shayla ever had of being free vaporized. She looked for an outlet for the anger she could no longer withstand, and it slammed into the one person she knew could feel it as much as she could.

Erik.

I trusted you! she thought angrily. I thought that you would be my solace, my support, my savior. But you are not. I'm doomed, and nothing you can do will ever stop it. What makes you think that anything you can do, in your weakness, will prevent my fate?

"Anger and agression, the dark side are they," she heard him say.

It's too late! she growled even without uttering a word. I needed you...I need you still. But you do not come. So you shall not have me, any longer, at all.

With that, Shayla erected a Force block, knowing Erik could not penetrate it. Certainly, she loved him even still. But she could not bear his reprimands and his touch any longer. She just couldn't.

With the quickness that she had directed her anger at her lover, she turned to another source.

Terrin.

You! she thought, fire flashing through her eyes. It is YOUR FAULT I am here, even now. You forced my return to the Praxeum by challenging my existence. Why can't you just leave me alone and let me be? And now you shall die with me!

She felt his presence, his calm, his fear. He was there, aboard the Hornett, almost certainly trying to figure some way out of this mess.

A mess he could never understand nor escape.

Then, another presence caught Shayla's attention. There was someone there, with him even now. Someone who somehow felt very familiar to her, as though they had met before.

But what was she doing there, aboard Terrin Danner's shuttle, and what part did she play in this horrid mess?

Feeling both confused and angry, a wave of fatique swept over Shayla. She laid back, and tried to relax, but the situation and the circumstances would not permit her to do so.

What WERE they doing here? And what fate indeed would she, Graysith, Terrin Danner, and this other collide with?

At last, the anger and confusion took over Shayla's exhausted mind, and the universe went black.

Her senses led her straight to M'wonBo'o... and beyond. Following the link, she once more encountered confusion, chaos, despair, anger and fear... all within the darkened mind of Shayla.

Without realizing it, she was on her feet, beginning to pace about the somewhat small confines of her bridge. This aspect of her tuk'ata came as a great surprise to her... one which could prove to be useful in the future. His ability to link mentally with other beings appeared to be growing, swelling... and, ever loyal beast that he was, through these developing links he could easily keep her apprised of the repressed feelings and thoughts of others. That he could be utilized thus would be helpful in that no more would she have to remain aggressive in this regard; she could save her energies for other matters.

Such as the two matters now facing her.

A frown, almost borne of deep sadness, creased her forehead as she thought of Shayla. Once more she followed M'wonBo'o's link into the mind of the padawan... read so easily the conflict within... reveled in the dark despair, the growing anger and apparent hatred toward the one called Erik... as well as the other outside whose fleet she sat patiently waiting, like a whorl-spider calmly considering a gleeberfly trapped in its web.

Something deep was lurking there....

She thought briefly about fostering this hatred... of giving substantiation to the anger and fear.

Sat back with solid certainty. Glanced quickly at the chronometer, and reached out a delicate touch to open communications once again.

"Mr. Danner," she said sweetly. "Your time is up. No more negotiations.

As those awful words came into my ears, the meaning inherent in them slammed home with such impetus I almost doubled over. Instead I clutched at Terrin's arm, looking up into his wonderful blue eyes, hoping to find surcease there.

I was not this frightened when I ran from Her with Sorben. I wasn't even this frightened when I was held captive in that hideous Temple on that even more hideous planet, where the renegade Noghri had done their utmost to break my spirit along with my life. Then I felt despair, overwhelming sadness, for that was when the truth had finally been quite literally beaten into me that I no longer had a sister. That Jharmeen Jhin'Darr was indeed no more...

...but now, now was different. Now I found myself practically overflowing with the absolute certainty that, no matter where I went, no matter who I tried to side or hide with, She would find me. Like a Nek on the trail of blood, or worse, with the deathly resolve of that unholy Beast she kept by her side, She would not remove herself from my trail until I was captured and my baby was dead.

I shuddered again, refusing to think what she would do to anyone getting in her way... or when, finally having me, in exactly what manner she would have her way.

Blinking the threatening tears out of my eyes, and trying to fling them from me altogether with a falsely defiant toss of my head, I looked again for an answer in Terrin's blue gaze.

What I saw there came as no surprise. Dishearteningly enough, it only served to deepen my fear.

In an unconscious move, devil take anyone who looked askance at us now!-- I took my grasp from his arm. Instead, hunkering as closely as I could, trying to draw his warm sanity into me, I wrapped my arms around him, turning my head to look at the viewscreen.

There it was, as I knew it would be. It's geometries somehow difficult to look upon, it's greeny-golden beauty a farce in comparison to the flaming wonders of the Universe, the little ship just hovered. Didn't move, didn't make any overt gesture of hostility.

I knew only too well of its capabilities. It didn't need to.

I swallowed quickly, willing my brain to kick into gear. Galen ol girl, you've flown one of those things. You know what it can do. THINK!

A thought.

I jerked my gaze back into Terrin's worried one. "Has- has that ship sent out any weird energy field in our direction?" I asked in a whisper, afraid that even across the vaccuum of space my words might somehow be heard.

Terrin looked to Matt, who held a quick conference with another crew member. My heart began to lift as, watching head after head shaking in the negative, I realized we might have one small hope.

She is strong, but not totally invincible. Her arrogance may be her only weakness....

"If that energy field touches us, it imbeds a molecular homing device into the very stuff our ships are made of. Apparently she either has forgotten it, or thinks she doesn't need it.

"Get us out of here now, Terrin! Anywhere!

"We desperately need time to think and plan, and now's our only chance."

And all she needed was to say the word, to give him a clue about what to do, and it would be done.

"Matt, are our hyperspace coordinates set and locked in?"

"Yes sir!" the other said, obviously eager to get out of the area.

"Good. Set the silent counter at five seconds so that all ships can know our intent yet we can keep our ships together. We're getting out of here, now," he said, fire shooting through his eyes.

In only a moment, maybe not even half a second, Matt nodded. "It's set. It's now or never."

Five, four...

Terrin held his breath, and prayed that at least for this moment they could evade the enemy and be safe...

Three, two, one...

Unconciously, he closed his eyes, and found that he was holding onto Galen for dear life, as though to keep her with him regardless of the outcome. He'd seen her emotion, her distress, he knew that she was afraid. He wanted to deny that he was too and be the solid one, but he didn't know how much longer that would last.

The Hornett didn't even lurch, but smoothly glided into a higher speed.

Hyperspace. Without even having his eyes open, Terrin knew what it felt like.

He opened his eyes and sighed with relief, finding that Galen had assumed much the same demeanor as he had.

And everyone on deck was watching, probably wondering what the heck had gotten into him...how he had become so emotional and so blatantly obvious about it. In the midst of the horror of the situation, he smiled, not caring one whit about what they thought or wondered.

"Matt, are all ships accounted for?" he finally asked.

After a minute or two of checking, the other nodded. "Yes, everyone made it out in time. And we are all on course."

"Good." Then it occurred to him. On course to where? "And where might we be going?"

Matt grinned, the first sign of amusement on his face that Terrin had seen since he reached deck. "Oh, just the other side of the known galaxy from here. We'll be in hyperspace for quite some time, but everyone was ready for this, so it'll be fine."

"Nice work. Now, as much as I'd like to get some sleep, I think we have some discussing to do first. We can't be caught off gaurd like that a second time. We won't be that lucky twice."

Somewhere deep within, a tiny speck of remaining mercy bowed before this enraged onslaught, and disappeared....

The Chosen Daughter leaped to her feet as the Universe around her exploded into shards of black destruction. All she saw was Death. All she felt was a heated outrage almost beyond the capability of being borne. The only light to stream forth through the encroaching dark was that which now blazed forth from the Glyph on her forehead. It shone steadily, refusing to be cowed, with a cold radiance somehow more frightening than the blackened rage.

Through all this came the howling ululation of her Beast. He too shared in her fury and sense of betrayal. The inner Beast yowled in masterful duet.

Damn that vixen; she has more lives than a sandcat! Again she slips through my fingers!

As the words came into her brain, they acted like a sort of catalyst, triggering logic to the forefront. It marched steadily forward, waving its banner, beating down the animalistic emotions which so easily threatened to overtake and consume her completely.

Graysith took a deep and shuddery breath, and glared at the now-empty viewscreen. Terrin Danner's sizeable fleet... gone. Her prey taken with it.

She clenched her hands into fists as the inner Beast sought to stretch forth and yowl again, fighting against it. Gradually loosened the grip with yet another exhaled breath. Felt the unthinking rage flow out with it, being replaced more and more with growing determination and coherence...

...and Something Else. Uttering a small moan, the Daughter of the Sith fell to her knees as a darker, deeper and far, far stronger Tendril crept into her mind. It bore upon the interstices of its structure the Image of One whose mein was that of charnel-house slaughter, whose eyes were fiery beyond the coronal plasmas of suns themselves. The sense of disappointment her Love and Sire slammed home into her being was strong enough to send her hands flying before her eyes, her head bowing in homage and submission.

HE did not materialize. For a long moment time stopped, as He let her feel his reproof from afar. Let her decide what to do with it, what she in fact SHOULD be doing with it. Reminded her once again of her purpose, her destiny, the achievements they ultimately sought together.

A mere three words whispered like frozen blood along the link he maintained with her. "Priorities, my Love..."

Graysith all but fell over as Aelvedaar's presence was abruptly withdrawn. Shaken, she climbed to her feet, one hand reaching out to her navboard to steady herself. Gripping it firmly, she seated herself once again in her command chair, and dared to look out upon the star-sprinkled universe which so calmly surrounded her.

She pursed her lips with new purpose, her violet eyes slitting.

Very well, my dear. In a final burst against an earlier vow, she reached out her blackness, sought her blood-sister, reached into her brain and allowed the words to be seeded there. You elude me yet again. So be it... for now.

But know this: you cannot run far enough. You cannot hide from me forever. I will have the Child... and you, my sweet, sweet sister...

The final horrific words sussurating like the hiss of a snake, she withdrew from the mind she had so easily entered. Somewhere in hyperspace, Galen shivered, as her fear grew unthinkably deeper.

Satisfied, Graysith played about the navboard, setting in a course. Beyond her viewscreen, the stars lurched into the white glory of hyperdrive, which sent a soft glow upon her. She heeded it not, but turned her back altogether and headed away as her ship leapt along its new course.

Graysith followed her own course to Shayla Stargazer Petrolu.

But wasn't it a good one?))